Hunter and Hunted
by Maria Albert
Summary: Sequel to Outmaneuvered. The Survey Corps is used to being hunted by their prey, the Titans, but they never expected humanity to turn on them. Will they survive long enough to discover the secret in Eren Yeager's basement, or will they fall at the hands of those they are sworn to protect? Levi x Erwin, Eren x Mikasa, Armin x Jean, Sasha x Connie. POV alternates and some chapters M.
1. Chapter 1 - Friends and Enemies

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**Hunter and Hunted by Maria Albert**

**Summary:  
Sequel to **_**Outmaneuvered**_**. The Survey Corps is used to being hunted by their prey, the Titans, but they never expected humanity to turn on them. Will they survive long enough to discover the secret in Eren Yeager's basement, or will they fall at the hands of those they are sworn to protect? Levi x Erwin, Eren x Mikasa, Armin x Jean, Sasha x Connie. POV alternates and some chapters M.  
Drama/Adventure/Suspense/Humor/Hurt/Comfort/Romance.**

**A/N:  
To my **_**Outmaneuvered**_** readers, welcome back! To those of you who haven't read my previous story, I'd recommend you start with that one, as this is the sequel. Though it can stand alone – I recap key events in Chapter 1 – you'll have a better understanding of the characters and relationships if you start with the other story.**

**This story takes place after **_**Outmaneuvered**_**, which took place after the first season of the Anime, but just before the final scene. This second story diverges significantly from the Manga, but still includes references to characters and events from the Anime, the Manga, Titans databases, and the **_**No Regrets**_** two volume Manga depicting Levi's backstory.**

**A number of chapters have been prewritten. A new chapter will be posted every week, on Thursday, until the story is complete. Different chapters are in the points of view (POV) of different characters. A POV change or time change within a chapter will be marked with "0 0 0". Reviews, favorites and follows are appreciated.**

**If you like this story, you might also like my original published work, the four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, by Maria Albert, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 1 – Friends and Enemies

Levi breathed easier as the eleven of them left Karanese through the inner Gate on horseback, with a full dozen packhorses at their side, the latter primarily for appearances. Their cover story was that he and his new eight man Special Operations Squad were on a training mission, to become comfortable working with one another, and that Erwin and Hange were accompanying them as observers. Their true mission objective was to reach Eren Yeager's basement, by way of the Capital and the Sigma Gate, through the secret underground Aqueduct 3 maintenance tunnel leading to the Nu Gate, the Smuggler's Gate outside Shiganshina. From there they'd be traveling aboveground into and through Shiganshina, to Eren's house. But first, they had business in Stohess with Hans Schiffer, a long trusted food supplier, the man who had poisoned almost the entire Corps, ultimately killing seven Scouts. Had he been working with the Titan spies or independently? Who had paid him to perpetrate such a heinous crime and why? Who hated them that much?

"Tch," Levi snorted to himself. _Who doesn't? The Wallists, for our heretical transgression of daring to venture beyond their sacred Walls? The nobles or merchants, for wasting their precious tax money with our very existence? Or maybe even that bastard Rickard, wanting revenge for having his homophobic ass kicked out of the Corps?_

"Levi?" Erwin said softly, the concern in his voice evident as he broke Levi's reverie with an unspoken question in his warm blue eyes. _What's wrong?_

Levi gazed up at the man he loved, who currently towered above him on his massive new warhorse, Heracles, a Percheron, a gift from Garrison Commander Pixis, along with the 200 new Scouts they'd left behind in Karanese and hundreds of horses. Levi scowled bitterly. Only there were no longer 200 new Scouts. There were only 193, thanks to that bastard who'd poisoned them. He'd killed seven men and 192 horses, including Erwin's former primary mount Dash, and his own, Pewter. Sasha. That fucker had nearly gotten Sasha, too.

Levi automatically looked behind, to his right, reassuring himself with a glimpse that Sasha was fine, healthy again, fully recovered. She beamed at him, her eyes lit with adoration, and his heart felt lighter, seeing her smile, especially after what she'd been though that morning at the hands of the Military Police, having been bashed in the head and bound and gagged as an accused Titan spy, a traitor to humanity, along with her friend, Jean Kirstein, and boyfriend, Connie Springer. Commander Dok and his men were lucky they'd left the base alive, after what they'd done.

Springer glared at Levi, one cheek puffy and swollen, black and blue. Levi smirked back. The little shit was obviously still pissed at him for kicking him in the jaw and knocking out his tooth, in spite of the fact that doing so had saved the twerp's life: it had convinced the Military Police that he wasn't a Titan spy posing as a human. One of the many reasons they were taking the more circuitous, branching road instead of the main road to Stohess and the Capital was so they would avoid running into Commander Dok and his minions on their way back to the Capital. That ass was just stupid and arrogant enough to arrest Sasha, Jean and Springer all over again. They weren't about to tempt him to do so.

Levi's eyes strayed to Jean, who was riding next to Sasha and Springer, and then to Armin, Mikasa and Eren, who were riding together, from there to Heinrich Bauer and Josef Anders, and then finally to Hange, who was taking up the rear, the only person other than Erwin on this secret mission of theirs who wasn't part of his new Special Operations Squad.

Levi scowled again. They still didn't know who the fucking spies were, although they were relatively certain now that their spy or spies were one or more of the only four in the Corps from the 104th who weren't riding with him, the ones who were unfortunately on three days of leave: Braun, Hoover, Ymir and Lenz.

"Levi? Talk to me," Erwin urged.

Levi swung his gaze back to Erwin, feeling immediately guilty, seeing that the concern in Erwin's eyes had intensified to worry.

"It's nothing. I'm just thinking too much again," Levi assured him.

"Are you having second thoughts about the mission? Entering the underground passageway again?" Erwin hazarded, posing the question quietly enough so the others wouldn't hear.

Levi involuntarily shuddered, just thinking about that dark, enclosed hell, feeling his skin crawl and stomach heave at the thought of those insects, the fish that had been eating them, and the water polluted by them. "I hadn't been until now, you ass," Levi growled, hating how he'd been all but debilitated again by his trauma induced phobias, for the first time in years, this time in front of the brats, and Erwin.

"Sorry. Then what's bothering you?" Erwin asked. "Your leg?"

As if on command, Levi's wounded thigh throbbed, unused to the strain of riding, and he checked to make sure his crutches and sword cane were still securely strapped to his saddle. Achilles stomped his foot in protest, in the process throwing off his own gait.

Levi cursed as he nearly pitched off his truculent mount. He fought the urge to haul on the reins in retaliation, not wanting to hurt the obnoxious animal's sensitive mouth. "Try that again, you fucker, and I'll give Heracles your carrots tonight," he instead threatened.

The horse snorted and tossed his head, as if he'd understood the threat, and then purposefully shifted sideways, nearly crushing Levi's good leg banging into the right foreleg of the huge steed beside him, as if berating the larger mount for even thinking about eating his treats.

Heracles turned his head, one patient eye staring at the smaller horse, and then he snorted, as if amused by the annoying insect challenging him.

Achilles pranced proudly, as if he had somehow emerged victorious in the show of strength.

Levi loved the arrogant animal already. He reminded him poignantly of Pewter, though it would have been a tossup as to who would have emerged victorious in a test of wills between those two. "One of these days, you're going to push the wrong horse, you little shit, and he's going to step on you," Levi cautioned his diminutive mount, not about to let the devious monster know he cared.

Achilles snorted, as if saying, "_Who are you calling small, shrimp_?"

"Um… Captain? Are you talking to your horse?" Eren asked from behind him, as if he were concerned for his sanity.

Levi turned in his saddle and smirked wryly. "What's the matter, Eren? Jealous?"

Eren's face flushed and he scowled. "You wish."

"Levi, stop ignoring me and tell me what's wrong," Erwin urged.

Levi snapped back to face Erwin. "What, do you want a fucking list? Armin, Mikasa and I are all injured, we're going to confront the man who tried to kill the entire fucking Corps, and then the eleven of us are going to take on the fucking Titan army at Shiganshina, to get into Eren's damned basement. That's of course assuming we somehow manage to open the damned Sigma Gate again and if the Titan spies let us get anywhere near it in the first place. Because I don't think anyone bought our lame-ass story about this little expedition of ours being a training mission, to test my new Squad."

"About that," Eren interrupted. "I wanted to ask you before, but didn't want to risk discussing it on base, where the spies might hear. Exactly how are we supposed to get into the tunnel? Hypatia said the trigger mechanism doesn't work on their side of Sigma Gate."

"Who's Hypatia?" Erwin asked frowning.

"You mean Jean was right?" Springer asked, astonished. "We actually are going to Eren's basement? And he was right about the Smuggler's Gate? We're using a secret tunnel to get to Shiganshina?"

"Gee, Connie, thanks for having so much faith in me," Jean grumbled.

"How the fuck do you know about the tunnel and the Smuggler's Gate? What did you hear? Who told you? When?" Levi demanded, halting Achilles and glaring at Jean.

"I didn't hear anything. I figured it out for myself, and I talked to Connie about it last night," Jean asserted, proudly, as he and the others stopped as well.

"Fucking wonderful! We go through all these fucking hoops talking and writing in code, even in fucking Greek, and you're just blabbing about our plan where anyone can hear, including our Titan spies? Who else heard?" Levi demanded.

"No one. Well, except for Reiner and Bertolt," Jean qualified.

"Of course. Only two of the four fucking people most likely to be our Titan spies," Levi fumed.

"No way! You can't seriously think… That's nuts!" Jean argued vehemently. "They helped us train. Saved our asses more than once. Hell, Reiner helped us fight the Female Titan. He saved me and Armin from her. Squad Leader Miller and Commander Dok's paranoia must be catching, if you think Reiner and Bertolt are the spies!"

"There's no way it's them," Eren agreed, supporting Jean for one of the first times ever. "Who are the other two you suspect?"

Levi sighed. "The only other two left in the Scouts from the 104th: Ymir and Lenz."

"Krista? Seriously? No way! She's got to be the weakest, gentlest member of the whole Corps," Eren argued. "Ymir, sure, maybe, she's violent and scary and kind of creepy, but not Krista."

"Forget the spies, for now," Erwin commanded. "We have no way to prove our suspicions, until we find and confront them. And the Gate won't be a problem. Even if Levi or Hange can't repair the mechanism, Hange brought other means of taking care of it. What I want to hear about is Hypatia. Who is she, and why wasn't she mentioned in any of your reports?" Erwin asked the four of them, but his eyes were focused on Levi.

_Shit. _Levi sighed. "Sorry, brats." He turned to Erwin. "Have you ever heard of the Library in the Underground?"

"What, you mean the mythical collection of banned and forbidden books? Ah. Of course. Hypatia was the name of one of the librarians of the ancient Library of Alexandria. So there really is a secret, concealed Library in the Underground?" Erwin asked intrigued.

"Yes. The brats have actually been there. The damned Librarian is Armin's girlfriend, though I still have a hard time believing that part of it," Levi said wryly.

"Ex-girlfriend. Or at least, she will be soon," Armin amended, his eyes shifting tellingly to Jean and then quickly back to Levi. "I'm going to tell her as soon as I see her again."

Levi frowned._ Armin and Jean? Seriously? I didn't expect that. It might work or it might turn into a complete clusterfuck. I'll have to make sure they don't hurt one another._

"I don't think that's a good idea, Armin. Even if you've had a change of heart for some reason, you shouldn't say anything to her about it," Levi said discreetly, not letting on that he knew the reason. He suspected their relationship, if there was already one, might be secret, considering how Eren felt about Jean. "The last thing we want to do is antagonize her." The Librarian and her minions were deadly. There wasn't a Lurker in the Underground with half a brain who didn't fear them.

"Tch. I never thought you'd be scared of Commander Pixis," Jean scoffed in surprise.

Levi turned to Jean, both confused and alarmed. Intuitive or not, Jean couldn't possibly know about his relationship to Pixis, and fear had nothing to do with it. "What the hell does Pixis have to do with anything?" he bluffed, heart hammering wildly.

"Hypatia's his cousin," Jean said, as if he was an idiot and the answer was obvious.

Levi spun around to look at the brats, in time to see Armin shaking his head, a panicked look on his face. He stared at Armin stunned and then his eyes narrowed. _The little shit lied to me. Or at least still withheld information. I thought he and the other two had finally told me everything. Tch. I knew this would happen. Fear breeds power and respect. I've been too damned nice to these brats._ "So your grandfather's friend with ties to the military is Commander Pixis? And you just conveniently forgot to mention his name when I debriefed you?"

Armin looked like a thief caught stealing a bottle of wine at a Military Police party. "Um… actually, I sort of made up that part, about him being a friend of my grandfather's. Because I couldn't just not mention him altogether, with everything that happened, but we weren't supposed to tell anyone. Even Hypatia's men didn't know who he was, until I accidentally called him by name and rank in front of them. They… um… almost killed him, because they felt tricked and betrayed. He'd been their friend, visiting Hypatia for years in secret because… well, banned books are treasonous, and he's the head of the Garrison, and a whole Library of them…"

_That crafty old fucker. Looks like someone's getting another surprise visit, when we're in Stohess. It's long past time I find out whether he's ever realized why I broke into his office the first time._

Armin looked guiltily from Levi to Erwin. "But there really isn't anything wrong with those books. I mean, there's no reason people shouldn't be allowed to read them. I think it's awful that they ban and burn books. We've already lost so much, we lost the entire world, and they want to take even the memory of that away from us. It isn't right."

"Careful, Armin. That's exactly why those books get burned, because they stir up people like you, idealists and dreamers, who see what the world should be, instead of what it is, and start wanting to fix it. That's called revolution, brat. Talk like that will get you burnt at the stake, or hanged," Levi cautioned.

Armin paled and swallowed.

"Don't worry, brat. No one here would ever turn you in for that. Hell, most of us have…" Levi started to say, when Erwin abruptly cut him off.

"Levi!" Erwin said sharply.

"Fine. Be like that. You're all a bunch of illiterate idiots. But I'm not afraid to admit it: I've got my own damned library of banned books. 28 now, since I guess I won't be returning _The Art of War_, seeing as how someone's in denial about owning banned books," Levi said wryly, looking pointedly at Erwin.

"Hah. I've got twice as many as you, Runt," Hange gloated. "56 banned books. And 22 legal ones. Honestly, Erwin, I doubt there's a single Scout in the Corps who reads who doesn't own or hasn't at least read one banned book: Mike's got six, and Moblit's got one. Of course, Moblit would have a lot more, but I keep convincing him to give me all of his. So how many are in this secret Underground Library, Armin?" Hange asked eagerly.

"A couple of hundred," Armin admitted reluctantly.

Hange's eyes gleamed and Levi could see Erwin looked excited in spite of himself.

"I want to hear everything the four of you omitted from your debriefing," Erwin ordered. "We all should. We need to know what we're getting into in the Underground. And then we'll tell the rest of you about the tunnel and the Smuggler's Gate, as well as the alternate method Hange plans to use to get through the Gate, if we can't get the mechanism to work."


	2. Chapter 2 - Books and Booms

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.  
**

**A/N: I've posted this revision to the chapter I submitted earlier this morning. I always strive for accuracy in my stories, researching whatever I'm not sure of, but sometimes it's the things you think you already know that trip you up! Thanks to a comment from ExcessiveDonkey, I researched and expanded a bit on the term "blue bloods" by adding a paragraph, which tied in beautifully, as you'll see below, and in later chapters. Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and follows!**

Chapter 2 – Books and Booms

Armin took the lead in revealing what they'd previously hidden from the Commander, although he didn't report lineally and chronologically, as they finally had to Levi. "From what Hypatia said, some of the books they receive were originally owned by nobles. And they're the ones who make the laws banning the very books they own. That makes no sense, that they think they're too dangerous for other people to read, but they read them," Armin said crossly. It was their fault his grandfather had been constantly afraid his own banned book would be discovered, and even that Armin's parents had died, because they had been so eager to escape the Walls to see what lay beyond.

Levi shook his head in blatantly mock dismay. "There you go inciting rebellion again, Armin. Of course **they're** allowed to read them. But we're barely even human to those fuckers. 'The puny minds of the huddled masses wouldn't be able to understand the complex concepts written in them,'" Levi quoted bitterly, in a haughty and pretentious voice not his own. "There's a saying in the Underground: 'The bluer the blood, the brighter red when it flows,'" he added viciously.

Armin all but shivered. Levi hadn't scared him in a long time, not since he'd gotten to truly know him, but the depth of hatred in his voice when he said that was chilling. Did he really despise the nobility that much? Was it because he'd spent most of his life a starving criminal in the Underground, while the nobles prospered, or because of the way they belittled the Corps? Armin noticed even Commander Erwin had shifted uneasily at Levi's words.

"Did you know that they call nobles 'blue bloods' because of the poor oxygen flow in their blood, from all the inbreeding?" Hange piped up. "Back when there were still countries, the incest rates among nobles were really pretty astonishing, when you take into account they knew incest was a bad idea, genetically speaking, and they had a much larger gene pool to work with than we do now."

"Tch. As usual, you've only gotten some of your facts right, Shitty Glasses," Levi scoffed disdainfully. "What you're talking about is cyanosis, low oxygen in the blood because of circulatory and respiratory problems. The _sangre azul_ in those inbred royal and noble assholes is because the lily white skin on those lily-livered cowards who hide from the sun makes their capillaries and veins more visible, and because their blood is almost without exception RH negative, so they retain copper better, tinting their blood and skin blue. It's also supposed to be because of the amount of silver in their blood, from drinking wine in silver goblets while the rest of us starve. All of which just goes to prove that if you want to rob a royal or noble of all his copper and silver, you need to slice the fucker open, preferably before he tries to solve his hereditary inbreeding problems by fucking unwilling commoners. How about I gut a few for you, so you can dissect them and add to our sparse scientific knowledge, for the good of humanity?" Levi proposed viciously.

"That's enough Levi! And you can lecture us all on heredity some other time, Hange. Right now, I want to hear about the Library, and whatever else you all failed to report. Starting with you, Levi," Erwin chastised, far more sharply than Armin would have expected. The Commander had finally been sounding like he'd fully recovered from the mental aberrations caused by his concussion, before this. Maybe the strain of the morning, the military Police arresting his men right in front of him on base, had weighed more heavily on him than they'd realized? No, it must be because Levi had known about the Library but hadn't told him about it. Armin sensed there was pain behind the Commander's annoyance or anger.

"First we should tell everyone about the Smuggler's Gate," Levi said, and Erwin curtly nodded his permission.

Levi outlined the secret secondary mission objective from their last mission, to find the Smuggler's Gate, and detailed how it was successfully accomplished, bluntly describing his injuries and physical limitations, instead of glossing over them, though he still concealed his phobias, at least for the time being, when describing their journey through the maintenance tunnel and down the canal. Armin couldn't imagine Levi being able to keep his phobias secret from the others once they were in the tunnel, although he'd do his best to aid him in hiding them, and he was certain Eren and Mikasa and Commander Erwin and Hange would as well.

Armin could see that Jean and Connie were impressed by what they heard, but angry they and Sasha hadn't heard about their secondary objective last mission, even knowing he and Eren and Mikasa hadn't either. Even Hange, Anders, and Bauer hadn't known, and Bauer had been on Levi's Squad. Armin could see that unlike Jean and Connie, Sasha didn't care. She obviously was only glad they'd found and rescued Levi and made it safely back because of the tunnel.

Armin was surprised by how complete and straightforward Levi's report was, and the respectful tone he used when presenting it. It was clear Levi truly hated disappointing and upsetting Erwin. It was actually incredibly cute, how much Levi loved Erwin.

Armin interjected points here and there, in the middle of Levi's report, things he'd purposefully omitted before when Levi had debriefed them, but that he thought might be useful or important. He included the fact that the officers of the Garrison Special Forces and a few select others knew about Hypatia and her relationship to Pixis. But he even told them about little things, like the Garrison cat Hydra that had found a home as a mouser and rat killer in the Library, as well as the really important details, about Pixis telling Hypatia the Military Police and Garrison patrol schedules, and leaving military supply buildings unlocked for Hypatia and her men to make it easier to pilfer things. Armin also mentioned the most recent book Pixis had borrowed from the Library, _I, Claudius_, about a Roman emperor Pixis reminded Hypatia of.

Erwin shook his head in amazement. "That crafty old fox. I'm not surprised he'd admire Emperor Claudius. I knew he was brilliant, and devious, but the level of secrecy and deceit all this entails is truly mindboggling," Erwin said admiringly.

Levi piped up, looking accusingly at Erwin. "So now all of you know our secrets. It's your turn, Erwin. How does Hange propose to open the Gate if we can't get the mechanism to work? Or are you still keeping that secret from me?"

_Oh no. Now Levi's the one who's miffed, and he's a lot less easy to placate than Erwin_, Armin thought with a quiet sigh.

"Don't get in a huff," Erwin said mildly. "We couldn't risk the Titan spies learning what Hange has been up to. To be honest, even I have no idea what she's planning. She told me she could take care of it, and I put my faith in her."

"Idiot," Levi scoffed. "Alright, Shitty Glasses, what sick and twisted brand of your own personal chaos do you have hidden in those bulging bags you've burdened your poor packhorses with?

Hange grinned maniacally. "Gather round, children, gather round. So tell me, in any of your illicit readings, have any of you malcontents and dissidents other than Levi come across mention of a wondrous substance called nitroglycerin?"

Armin was shocked when Levi actually paled, and his eyes darted immediately to the horses. "Tell me that's not why your temporary lab blew up three months ago, when we were out studying Eren. Convince me, right now, that even you're not insane enough to load those packs with nitroglycerin," he challenged.

"Hange, what's nitroglycerin? What did you do?" Erwin asked imperiously, with belated anxiety.

"Honestly, is this the thanks I get for being brilliant? Do you have any idea how hard it was to recreate a thing of beauty like nitroglycerin given the poor, generalized, vague hints at a formula I had?" Hange challenged.

"Fuck. Everyone, slowly, get the hell away from those walking ammo dumps," Levi ordered, staring at the innocent looking packhorses as if they might turn into Titans at any moment.

"**Please!** Oh ye of little faith. Of **course** I didn't load up those cuties with nitroglycerin. I **made** nitroglycerin, but I knew it was too unstable to be useful. That wasn't the end product I was after. I wanted something that was portable and deadly and explosive that could be used against a Titan from a distance, to blow out the back of his neck, instead of cutting it out, but a corked flask of that stuff would just as likely blow your hand off as take out a Titan. So I didn't just recreate the volatile elegance that is nitroglycerin from a partial recipe, I recreated something far more practical, completely from scratch, through the wondrous process of trial and error called experimentation: I made dynamite. All I found were some vague references to mixing nitroglycerin with clay as a stabilizer and attaching a fuse and voila!

"At first I was just thinking about tossing the sticks of dynamite at the Titans, but it would be hard to get it to the right height, with any accuracy, at the exact time it was ready to blow, and of course, they tend to move a lot. But then I came up with another brilliant idea: tie the dynamite onto arrows, light the fuses, and fire them from a bow. The arrowhead imbeds in the Titan's neck, securing it, and then once the fuse burns, '**BOOM**!'" she yelled, flinging her hands out wildly with a crazy grin.

Armin was comforted to see he wasn't the only one who jumped when she did that, considering what she'd been talking about.

"I brought two bows and ten dozen arrows, and we just happen to have at least one expert archer with us," Hange said, grinning at Sasha.

"Are you insane? You're not getting near Sasha with that stuff!" Connie yelled.

"Calm down, Baldy. We won't be strapping it onto arrows anytime soon. We're not going to be using it against the Titans until Shiganshina. First, we're going to use it to blow apart that solid rock Gate, if we can't open it any other way," Hange assure him.

"Tch. The Lurkers are going to love you setting off explosives in the Underground, Shitty Glasses. And I thought some of your other schemes were insane. This one's particularly demented, even for you," Levi bemoaned, shaking his head in disgust.

"_Hah._ You're just jealous because I'm a better chemist than you. It's not like you were able to make it. I'm sorry about your book, though, really," she apologized to Levi, looking genuinely repentant and miraculously contrite.

"Tch. I didn't have access to a tenth the equipment you do, back when I tried. I'm just glad you didn't get blown up with it," Levi admitted.

"Awwwww! You really do care!" Hange crooned.

"Of course I care, idiot. You made a big enough mess of your lab as it was, without bloody body parts being splattered everywhere," Levi grumbled. "Just be careful not to bring the whole damned cavern down on our heads with that shit, if you use it."

Levi had tried to say it casually, but because he knew him so well now, Armin could see the thought truly terrified him. Armin would have to pull Erwin aside later, risking Levi's wrath if he found out, to make sure Erwin knew the severity and exact nature of Levi's phobias and ensure they had the lights and other equipment they needed, no matter how cumbersome and excessive some of it might seem. Levi would never make it out of the tunnel sane otherwise. Armin was going to recommend carrying a rowboat in, or bringing the horses, because if the boat they'd used wasn't there or intact, the trip to Shiganshina would be too long for Levi to endure. Well, conscious, at any rate. He'd make sure Hange had something with her to knock him out safely, too, in case it came to that.

"Terrific. Now you're plotting too. I knew this maniac would be a bad influence on you," Levi grumbled, glaring at Armin.

Armin belatedly tried to school his expression, realizing he'd given himself away.

"Tch. Don't think that will work, either, brat," Levi scoffed.

Armin frowned. _Don't think what will work?_ Armin realized his lip was between his teeth, that he'd bitten it unaffectedly, this time, instead of intentionally, and he quickly released it. "I wasn't plotting anything. And I didn't bite my lip on purpose, this time," Armin defended, realizing his mistake a moment too late.

"Tch. This time. I liked you better when you were innocent and… no I didn't. Don't listen to me, Armin. You're fine, just as you are. Don't change a damned thing," Levi ordered.

Armin started to grin but then shot a worried glance at Erwin. To his surprise, Erwin smiled back at him. "I like the new you too, Arlert. As long as you keep your hands and sponge to yourself," he qualified, but with a twinkle in his eye, instead of a threat, as he referred to the sponge baths Armin had given Levi in Mikasa's former mountain home.

"Yes, sirs," Armin said happily. In spite of everything they'd faced, all was once again right with his world, for the moment, at least.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Road Less Traveled

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

Chapter 3 – The Road Less Traveled

As Sasha and the others had expected, the hundred plus Military Police had stayed on the main road back to the Capital, as evidenced by thenumerous hoofprints and manure piles they'd left upon the well-packed earth. It was eerily quiet as a result, every bird and mammal within five kilometers of the road having fled from the loud, clanking, potentially hungry force.

Sasha was relieved when after a time on the main road they turned onto the less traveled road that branched from it, though she was all but oblivious to the beauty of the terrain around them, the clear stream rambling through the scattered trees paralleling the road and the rolling, tilled fields of the many farms beyond them. Just thinking about the morning, their arrests, was terrifying. If it hadn't been for Levi…

"Stop looking at him like that," Connie snarled.

Unfortunately, Connie didn't share her gratitude, stubbornly oblivious to the risks Levi had taken, not only that Connie could easily have actually been the Titan they'd accused him of being, but just for crossing the Military Police itself, after what Commander Erwin had told them. Siding with the prisoners was an act of treason, immediately punishable by death. Levi had walked a wire thin line, challenging the Military Police like he had, particularly considering his past as a thief, especially since she knew Commander Dok personally despised Levi. She and Levi had had a number of talks in Pewter's stall, resulting in her learning more than most people knew about their lovably prickly Captain. She'd tried to explain to Connie, but he was in too much pain and too humiliated to listen. And no doubt planning all kinds of foolish retaliation.

Sasha kept her tone gentle, but didn't pull any punches with her words. "I know you don't understand why what Captain Levi did was necessary. You don't have to be grateful to him for saving your life, but he saved me too, and Jean. Not just this morning, either, but before. I could be serving time right now in a Military Police prison for what I stole, or been six feet under from that poison, and Jean would be long dead from a self-inflicted shot to the head." She realized she'd made a mistake when Connie's face reddened in fury.

"Just what the fuck happened in that little bastard's office, after he caught you? Tell me that sausage was the only thing fucking you."

Every iota of compassion and understanding she'd felt towards her hotheaded boyfriend evaporated with his words. "You honestly believed that cock and bull report Levi wrote? No, you obviously think even worse of me. You apparently believe I'd actually whore myself out for a piece of meat. Well you can go fuck yourself, Connie Springer, because I'm sure as hell not going to," she snapped, kneeing Butterscotch in the sides, causing her horse to spring in front of the stupid prick before she said something she'd likely regret later.

_Uh oh._ From the death glare Levi was currently giving Connie, she'd spoken a little too loudly. She pulled forward further, until her horse was abreast of Levi's, on his right, opposite Erwin's position, knowing ultimately it would piss Connie off worse, but for the sake of the little twerp's health, not having the luxury to care. "Don't, Levi. Please. He didn't really mean it. You hurt his pride even worse than his jaw, and it's not like I went around trumpeting my relationship with you. I was discreet about it, for both our sakes, because I knew everyone would get the wrong impression and…"

_Shit._ She turned to Commander Erwin, who was remaining so calculatedly impassive. "Um… Commander Erwin? When I said 'relationship', I didn't mean that the way it sounds. It's more a novice and master sort of thing."

"I've understood the type of relationship you two have since the poisoning, Blouse. Perhaps even better than you do, unless Levi has spoken to you more than I think," Erwin said calmly.

Sasha figured the Commander might be referring to Isabel, but she wasn't about to mention her name in front of either of them.

"Good. I'm glad you understand. I'm sorry for intruding, sir," she said sincerely. Because Erwin needed time with Levi. From all she'd heard, Erwin had been caring for the dying horses in the stable, while Levi had been in charge of the Infirmary, and it must have been devastating to see so many of their horses die, having been all but helpless to save them, especially for someone as brilliant and powerful as the Commander.

She slowed her horse, waiting for Connie. Levi hadn't promised he wouldn't hurt Connie, but that murderous gleam had left Levi's eyes, so she trusted her idiot boyfriend was safe for now.

Jean intercepted her. "Connie wants to tell you he's sorry he was such a dick, Sasha. He wants to, but he's too much of a proud ass to do more than think it. Go easy on him anyway, OK? It was humiliating for all of us, being accused and treated like that, like rabid dogs, in front of our friends and comrades, after risking our lives for the City, but Connie got his ass kicked, well, his face kicked, by Levi, too, right in front of you. A guy never wants to look weak in front of his girlfriend, let alone have her be hurt and be powerless to help. Don't push him away, OK? He's not the type to kill himself over this, but I'm worried that he is the type to try to kill someone else. And you know if he goes after Levi he's… well, I don't think Levi would actually kill him, but Connie's pride would definitely take another hit. And then he'd try to prove how brave and tough he is to you in spite of it, and get eaten in the process."

Sasha sighed. "I know. It's not like it was easy for me either, you know, seeing the two of you treated like that. Or me, either. I really thought… I didn't think even Levi would be able to…" She stopped, too choked up to continue speaking. She'd thought the Military Police were going to torture them to death, slowly, that they'd cut them apart and… Her head swam as her heart pounded and she fisted Butterscotch's mane with her left hand to keep from falling off him.

"Sasha! Hey! Shit, are you OK? Squad Leader Hange, Mikasa, Sasha's sick!" Jean called out, panicked.

Sasha shook her head, to argue that she wasn't, but that made her more woozy and dizzy and she slumped against Butterscotch's neck.

"Sasha!" both Levi and Connie called simultaneously, Levi from her right and Connie from her left.

"Move, both of you. Give her some space, so I can help her dismount and take a look at her," Hange scolded.

Sasha was vaguely aware of Hange shepherding her off her horse and onto the grassy ground beside the road, having her lie down in the dappled shade under one of the trees, so the sun wouldn't glare in her eyes.

Sasha felt rough, warm, clinical fingers at the pulse on her throat, and then probing along her neck. Then her eyes were checked, Hange's own normally manic eyes uncharacteristically serious, through the thick lenses of her glasses.

"When was your last period?" Hange asked bluntly.

Sasha squirmed in humiliation. "Last week. I'm not pregnant," she mumbled, embarrassed.

"Well no, I wouldn't expect you to be. You'd have lost it when you were poisoned," Hange confirmed, in her typical appalling bedside manner. "I was thinking more along the lines of anemia, either from your period or perhaps as an unexpected aftereffect of the hemoperfusion. When did you last eat, and what did you have?" she asked, as she probed her abdomen.

Sasha bit her lip guiltily. "Um… the Monkshood," she admitted.

"I meant after you were poisoned. What have you… oh. Well, that explains it. Honestly, Sasha, with your metabolism, it's a wonder you were riding at all, if you haven't eaten in the past two days, especially since I know for a fact everything that had been in your stomach was expelled when you vomited, or forcibly removed, through the gastric lavage. You're suffering from low blood sugar and the start of malnutrition and starvation. You need to eat. Now. I don't care if we weren't planning on stopping for a meal until tonight."

"But we can't delay our mission just for me," Sasha argued.

"You should have thought about that before you starved yourself, you stupid brat. Why the hell didn't you eat?" Levi snapped.

"It's Jean's fault. He interrupted her in the Mess Hall yesterday," Connie accused.

"Honestly, Connie, sometimes you're so oblivious, it scares me," Jean said in disgust. "She had a heaping plate when I came in and was just staring at it. When she said her eyes were bigger than her stomach and I should eat it, I realized she was too scared to eat. I tried to convince her it was safe, and I was going to make sure she ate some soup at least, but things went kind of south from there. But this morning at breakfast, and then at lunch, she should have eaten. She said she ate with you, Connie, so what the hell happened?" Jean demanded.

"What do you mean, with me? She told me she had breakfast with you, and said she was having lunch with Armin, because she needed to talk to the two of you individually because you were both such idiots. So it's your fault and Armin's that… Wait a minute. You mean she wasn't with you guys?" Connie looked from Jean to Armin, both of whom shook their heads, and then his eyes narrowed, as he glared suspiciously at Levi.

"Damn it! I wasn't with anyone, alright?" Sasha snapped, furious more with herself than Connie. "I was hiding in the shower. Because I wanted to hide in the stable, but just smelling the manure made me cry my eyes out, remembering Pewter, and how much he'd hurt and how much I'd hurt, how scared I was, when… I almost **died**, Connie. I should have died. Levi and Hange saved me, but… every time I think about… about… **food**…," she forced out, almost choking on the word, unable to continue.

"No. No fucking way!" Levi fumed, kneeling at her side, pain flashing across his face, either from his leg or because of her. "Listen up, you shitty brat. If you think I'm going to let you, of all people, develop some fucked up phobia about** food**, like my stupid-ass hydro-fucking-phobia, you're out of your shitty little mind. You're going to eat if I have to hold your nose shut and force-feed you like a damned toddler!" Levi snapped.

"Um… Levi? That's not how you feed toddlers," Hange ventured.

"Tch. A lot you know. It sure as fuck worked for the mothers trying to get their kids to eat that reeking garbage in the Underground," Levi snapped.

Sasha slammed her hand over her mouth as her stomach heaved, then yanked her hand away, as she bolted upright, turned her head, and vomited up a wave of bitter bile.

A moment later there was a slender-fingered scarred but gentle hand brushing against her cheek, as her hair was pulled away from her mouth, while she heaved again.

"Get the fuck off her!" Connie roared, and Sasha winced and tensed as Levi sprang up, hissing in pain or fury.

"That's enough, both of you!" Erwin's iron voice commanded from behind her, apparently having stepped between the two hotheads. "Levi, leave Blouse to Hange. She'll deal with her physical and psychological issues. Springer, you're not helping Blouse with this juvenile pissing contest. Levi has absolutely no romantic interest in Blouse, or in any other woman. She's a close friend. Get used to the idea. Not only does Levi does not suffer fools lightly, he doesn't tolerate them at all. If you want to remain in his Squad with your friends, including Blouse, you need to start acting like a soldier, not a lovesick teenager."

Sasha hated that both Levi and Connie got reprimanded because of her.

"We're breaking for a meal for Blouse. The rest of you, take off your horses' bridles, water them, and let them graze a little. Stretch your legs. We'll move again once Hange tells us to," Erwin ordered.

Hange helped Sasha clean her face and hands, and then handed her a tin plate. "Erwin bought food for the entire Corps from the Market, out of his own personal funds, to ensure it's safe to eat. We're going to start you off with crackers and a handful of nuts for this meal, because you need the carbohydrates and protein the most right now, and obviously even dried fruits and vegetables will be what you're most afraid of. If you keep that down successfully and are hungry for more, we'll play it by ear."

Sasha nodded miserably, for one of the first times in her life eating reluctantly, instead of enthusiastically.

"You have to take better care of yourself, Sasha, and not just for your own sake. You, more than anyone save for Erwin and perhaps Armin and Mikasa have the power to hurt Levi, although I'm not sure you realize all the reasons," Hange said unusually softly, obviously not wanting to be overheard. "Has Levi ever mentioned someone named Isabel to you?" she all but whispered.

Sasha forced herself to swallow the now mushy nuts in her mouth and quickly took a drink of water, all but holding her breath, half expecting to feel that crippling pain ripping through her again. "I know about her, that I remind him of her, not just because of my hair, but how crazy and eager I am about things, and the way I laugh and smile. How full of life I am. I know in the Infirmary that's what was destroying him the most. It was like watching her die a second time. I'd feel worse about that, except this time he was able to stop it, this time he was able to save her… me. I hurt so much, and I was so scared, I just wanted it to end. It would have been so easy to give up. But I couldn't do that to him. I'm such an idiot now, for having done this. I should have realized I couldn't just get away with not eating indefinitely."

"Fear can be debilitating, if you let it be. It can destroy you. You have to overcome your fears, or destroy them instead," Hange said, cold, hard steel in her voice.

As she nibbled reluctantly on one of the crackers, Sasha wondered what Hange had been afraid of, what she'd overcome. It seemed everyone in the Corps had demons they'd fought and defeated. Maybe that's why they were able to face monsters like the Titans. Until now, she'd had a relatively happy life. She'd loved her little hunting village and the people in it. Maybe now she'd be able to relate better to all the tragic histories around her.

A shadow fell over her, and for a moment she was impressed Levi could be blocking the sun so well, considering how little he was, even as she hoped Commander Erwin wouldn't yell at him for coming over to her, until the figure knelt down, and she realized it was the Commander himself.

"How are you feeling?" Commander Erwin asked with surprising gentleness, for once more compassion than curiosity in his voice.

"Like an idiot," she answered honestly. "I'm sorry for delaying us unnecessarily, sir."

"Understandable. But not what I was asking. How's your stomach handling the crackers?" he asked.

"Alright so far," she admitted, then winced when she realized she'd qualified her statement, implying it wouldn't stay that way. "I mean, I'm fine sir."

"Are you? I couldn't help noticing you've been discreetly crushing your crackers into crumbs and sprinkling them behind you on the ground," Commander Erwin chided.

Sasha's eyes widened in shock, not at being caught, but because she hadn't even been aware she was doing that. "I… I did?" she asked, turning around and seeing the evidence.

"I've recently become a bit of an expert at disposing food without eating it, though thankfully mostly without wasting it," the Commander unexpectedly admitted. "I'm sure the birds and ants will be happy you've been so generous, but try to eat more. Trust me, it only gets harder the longer you put it off. Also, I don't think you'll want to miss dinner tonight, and your stomach won't be up to it if you haven't eaten before then. But if you need some added incentive, we'll have to leave you behind in the Capital if you don't eat now, and then have a bigger meal tonight, and a hearty breakfast and lunch tomorrow. I don't think you want Springer or Kirstein or Levi on this mission without you." The threat was delivered with surprising gentleness. He handed her a half dozen additional crackers, which he'd been concealing in his hand. "Eat up, Blouse. Everything we brought is safe. I promise."

"Yes sir," Sasha said meekly and obediently.

0 0 0

Armin saw Levi was scowling at Erwin and Sasha, not his angry scowl or his jealous one, but his concerned one, the one he got when someone he cared about was hurting, physically or emotionally. Armin smiled to himself, feeling warmth spread through him, in spite of his own worry about Sasha, realizing he knew Levi well enough to be able to tell the difference, and a little about how cute it was, that Levi had a scowl for everything.

"Won't it piss the Captain off more that you're smiling at him, when he's obviously in a bad mood?" Jean asked.

Armin turned his attention to Jean, concerned he might have misunderstood his look and been jealous, but Jean just looked wary and curious. "No. He likes my smile. But maybe I should… never mind. Mikasa's heading over to him. She'll make sure he realizes Sasha's going to be OK."

Jean shook his head. "It's kind of amazing, you know? I mean, the Captain could barely stand any of you, except maybe for Yeag… I mean, Eren, before you all went missing, and then when you came back, you were all buddies. Actually, if anything, you and Mikasa are way more close to him, and Eren's become a little distant. I kind of wonder what the attraction is. I mean, other than, you know, you thinking he's hot and all."

Armin shook his head. "I don't. I mean, well yeah, he's still hot, but I don't think of him that way anymore. I told you that. Well no, I told you I wasn't going to flirt with him anymore, but I meant more than that. I don't even see him that way anymore, mostly. And he's totally amazing, in so many ways, other than how he looks, or moves, or fights. He's the strongest person I've ever met. I don't mean physically, but mentally, emotionally. He's lived through and overcome so much, like Mikasa, and Eren. He's just really special." Armin wasn't sure Jean would understand what he was trying to say. The last thing he wanted was for Jean to get jealous.

"I suppose I'll have to take your word for it. Although I guess I see it, a little. He could have just let me blow my head off, or stopped me and then not cared if I tried again, as long as it wasn't in front of him, but instead, he went out of his way to see I got my head screwed on straight. I owe him a lot for that," Jean admitted.

"So do I," Armin said fervently. Just the thought of what Jean had almost done was terrifying.

Jean rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish, but also surprisingly relieved. "Why don't you talk to him too? Make sure he's OK?" he offered magnanimously. "I mean, I need to let my horse graze a little, and I want to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't eat anything he shouldn't, or get too close to Achilles or anything."

"If you're really OK with that, sure," Armin said, eager to make sure Levi was alright.

0 0 0

Jean felt guilty for lying to Armin, but he needed privacy. He wasn't really comfortable talking to Marco's spirit in front of anyone, but he was so relieved to feel him again, after what had happened that morning, that he couldn't stay silent.

Marco had been completely frantic when he was attacked and bound by the Military Police. Jean had actually been more worried about Marco's ghost than himself. Marco had been so agitated and upset that the usually soft chill of his presence had felt more like a raging blizzard, cold fury and wild winds; Jean was honestly kind of surprised he didn't have frostbite from it. But in spite of the violence of that silent protest, poor Marco had been powerless to help him, incorporeal and ineffectual in his ghostly plea for mercy. And then suddenly he was just gone.

Even with what had been happening to him, the danger he was in, Jean hadn't been nearly as frightened for himself as he was for Marco's soul. He'd thought maybe it had been destroyed somehow, by that anger that was so foreign to the serene, quiet, supportive man he'd known. A few moments ago, feeling a familiar cold hand on his shoulder and the hairs on his neck tingling as he spoke to Armin had been an incredible relief.

Jean tugged on Acorn's bridle, encouraging his horse toward a patch of grass away from the others, before taking the bit out of his mouth so he could graze freely. He knew Acorn wouldn't wander too far. Only a Titan could panic a Corps horse, and even then, most of them returned when called by a whistle.

"I was worried about you when you left, Marco. Although I guess I should have realized you were probably just frantically looking for some way to help me, like when you brought Captain Levi to save me before, huh?" Jean asked sotto voce.

The warmth that spread through the pressure on his shoulder was as clear a response as a voice would have been, reminding him poignantly of Marco's sweet smile.

"I'm glad. Not that I don't want you to move on, to go to heaven, because I do. But I was afraid something bad might have happened to you, that all that anger might have damaged you, maybe even destroyed you, somehow. You know that the others will do their best to protect me, right? It's OK for you to go, Marco. You deserve your heavenly reward for being such a good person."

The warmth on his shoulder stubbornly remained.

Jean sighed. "Alright. I guess you're not ready to go yet." _Or maybe I'm just not ready for you to leave me. Because you're probably just in my head. Maybe. _He honestly wasn't sure which was true.


	4. Chapter 4 - Room at the Inn

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
If you like this story, you might also like my original published work, the four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, by Maria Albert, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 4 – Room at the Inn

Levi's jaw was stiff from gritting his teeth against the pain in the abused muscles of his thigh, as they rode on without any indication they'd be stopping again anytime soon, as they had in the afternoon. He should have realized that a long journey on horseback, even at a placid walk, would be too taxing for him to bear easily, but he wasn't about to betray his weakness to the others.

When they rounded the latest curve in the road, emerging from the groves of trees that had been surrounding them on both sides, Levi was surprised to see a number of buildings on the left at the side of the road, bordered by the ever present stream.

"That's our inn, up ahead, the Blue Boar. We'll eat dinner and spend the night here, eat breakfast here in the morning, and then continue on to the Capital," Erwin announced to Levi's surprise, indicating the impressive and welcoming cluster of buildings.

The largest building was made of grey stone with a sloped, blue tile roof, two stories tall and at least 50 meters long, with a number of windows on the side facing them, on both stories. Across the wide innyard was a long low wooden building, obviously a stable for riding horses, with a second, larger wooden building to the right, a carriage house, one that looked large enough to accommodate at least a half dozen carriages and their teams of horses. To the left of the stable was a squat barn, as evidenced by the size of the doors and the hayloft. There was a smaller wooden structure beside it with a wire fenced area all around it that could only be a henhouse, and two smaller wooden buildings that Levi thought might be an outhouse and hopefully a bathhouse, though he by far preferred showers to baths.

"There's still plenty of time before sunset. Shouldn't we keep riding and stop later?" Springer griped.

Levi had to forcibly restrain himself from tearing into the kid. He was sticky from sweat and coated in dust from the road, in desperate need of a shower, but far more, of relief from the muted agony of his leg. The pain was nothing compared to when he was first injured, it wasn't crippling or debilitating, but it was rapidly on its way to becoming so again.

"No. We won't reach the Capital today, regardless, and we won't find another inn like this within a hundred kilometers. I've stayed here before, on various occasions. It's superlative in every way: large enough for all of us, clean, warm, dry, and bedbug free, with hot and cold running water, indoor toilets, showers and baths, and the food is exceptional," Erwin replied. "The stable is just as fine. Our horses will be safe and well tended and our supplies secure. We're staying here."

_Thank fuck._ It looked like he wouldn't have to strangle the little shit after all. The accommodations themselves sounded like Paradise. Levi wondered what the two smaller wooden buildings were, considering what Erwin had told them. A toolshed and maybe a smokehouse or a smithy? He didn't fucking care. Erwin had him at the word "shower".

When they rode into the innyard, they were enveloped in an overwhelmingly welcoming aroma of freshly baked bread, and a second beguiling, sweeter scent. They were enthusiastically greeted by two men, by their clothing the head groom and the innkeeper. "Commander Erwin!" the latter said. "It's an honor and a joy to see you again. Are you here for a quick stop, or will you and your men be staying for dinner, and perhaps even for the night?"

"We've come for both dinner and to stay the night. We'll need your six best rooms, if you have that many available," Erwin replied, with a warm smile that made Levi's heart beat faster.

"We do indeed! You've come early enough both for the rooms and so that we have time to prepare some roast capon specially for you. Marjorie has already baked both blackberry and apple pies for dessert. They're cooling in the kitchen. I know you prefer to tend to your own mount, and some of your men might wish to as well, but our groom and stable boys would be more than happy to do so for you, if you'll allow it," the innkeeper offered.

"Thank you, Douglas. Captain Levi, Squad Leader Hange and I will take you up on your kind offer, but the rest of our men will see to their own mounts and the packhorses," Erwin said, to Levi's surprise and relief. He wasn't sure how well he'd be standing, let alone able to…

_That tricky bastard._ Erwin was doing this for his benefit, so he wouldn't need to groom his horse, which meant he hadn't hidden his pain as well as he'd thought. His first instinct was to balk at being coddled, but he quickly quashed his natural inclination to bitch at the man. Erwin was obviously concerned about him, and by including himself and Hange, was allowing him to save face.

The groom and two stable boys stepped forwards, the groom heading for Erwin, and the smaller of the two stable boys heading for him.

He eyed the boy appraisingly. He couldn't have been more than fourteen years old. There wasn't much in the way of muscle on him, but when pitted against the mass of a willful horse, a man's muscle was a paltry thing regardless. The boy's eyes were bright and intelligent, and there was a hint of mischief in the friendly grin as he looked up at him.

Levi decided to be nice and warn the kid what to expect, so he didn't end up with a broken foot. "Don't let his looks fool you. This one can be a little bastard when you least expect it. He might try to step on your foot or squash you against the stall wall, and then look at you like it was an accident. Don't take his reins unless you're sure you can handle him."

The boy's grin widened, and he produced an apple out of his loose shirt and tossed it into the air. "That's what apples are for," he said with a laugh, as Achilles watched the apple while trying to feign disinterest. "What's this beauty's name?" he asked, while both Erwin and Hange dismounted.

"Achilles, I assume because of that thumb shaped white patch of hair on the fetlock of his right hind leg, but probably also because the arrogant little shit thinks he's indestructible. He'll try to start trouble with the other horses as well as with you. You need to put him in a stall between these two," Levi said, indicating Armin's mount, Patroclus and Erwin's horse, Heracles. "He's been known to kick open his stall door when he's not next to Patroclus, and this monster Heracles here is too full of himself to be annoyed by any of Achilles' bullshit, but most of the other horses would want to bite him, and the feeling would be more than mutual," Levi warned, still astride the mischievous beast.

"Don't you worry none, Captain Levi, sir. I've got a trick or two of me own, more'n apples," the boy assured him with a confident and possibly flirtatious wink, as he held out his hand for the reins.

_Little shits know how to deal with other little shits,_ Levi thought wryly, as he handed him the reins and then dismounted.

He cursed as pain lanced through his right thigh and his leg buckled, surprised and relieved when familiar, warm, strong hands kept him from falling on his ass in the dirt. _Erwin._

A moment later, Hange had freed his crutches from his saddle, as well as his cane. She held the former out to him, retaining the latter. He accepted the crutches silently, with a scowl.

"Why don't we go inside and get situated," Erwin suggested smoothly, fortunately not stupid enough to ask him if he was alright.

"Of course," Douglas said, taking his cue from Erwin and leading the way.

Levi could feel the brats' concerned stares and Springer's gloating one on his back but he ignored them, as he wordlessly headed for the inn door on his crutches, clenching his jaw against the pain.

"If the Captain's in need of a doctor, one of the lads can ride and fetch him," the innkeeper offered to Erwin not quite quietly enough for him not to hear.

"No, it's an older injury. A hot soak and some of your wonderful wife's liniment will do the trick," Erwin assured him.

"Certainly! It will be a while before dinner, and of course you'll all want to wash up and rest before then too. Or perhaps wash the dust of the road from your mouths with a drink or two, if your men have a mind to?" he qualified, apparently realizing that just because Erwin didn't normally drink didn't mean his men wouldn't.

"You won't have to hide the good stuff, either, like you do when the MPs come by. I'm buying: the rooms, the meals and the drinks, so we're not depleting our tax funding any for nonessential indulgences," Erwin said with a conspiratorial smile.

The innkeeper had the grace to blush before laughing heartily. "Now, now, Commander, don't say that too loudly! We wouldn't want the MPs to think I play favorites or to get wind of what's in my wine cellar."

If the man hadn't been portly, balding, and half again Erwin's age, Levi might have actually been a little jealous at the easygoing, obvious camaraderie between the two men. They spoke as if they were old friends.

Likewise, when the man's wife appeared, squealed in delight and enveloped Erwin in a hug, pulling him into her ample bosom, Levi might have been put out, had she not been so matronly, and the hug a maternal one. "It's so good to see you! We heard such terrible rumors, this time, but we knew better than to believe half of what we heard. Though truth be told, we almost sent Bertram to Karanese. Charlotte's due any day now though, and… listen to me, nattering on, when this sweet young man is in need of a chair."

Levi blinked. _Sweet young man?_ Surely she couldn't mean… But then she spun toward him with remarkable speed and grace, for one so large. "You must be Captain Levi! No wonder Charlotte used to gush about you so, before she met her man Bertram. You're nearly as handsome as my Douglas!" the rotund woman gushed. For a horrified moment Levi was afraid she might hug him as well, but either the crutches or his demeanor saved him.

"And I'm sorry, but I don't know your name, dear," she said, turning to Hange.

"Hange, ma'am," she said with a grin.

"Hange. What an interesting name. We're so glad to meet you," the woman said with apparent sincerity, obviously having no clue whom she was welcoming into her inn.

The middle-aged woman turned back to Erwin. "I'm so glad those rumors about you and the Captain proved false. But Commander Erwin please, I know I shouldn't ask, and I certainly don't want to upset you, and I'm more than a little afraid to hear, but I'm so used to seeing the two of you together, and when I was peering out the window and didn't see him beside you, I just… please tell me, is Mikey alright?" The woman's voice was warbling, and she suddenly looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

_Mikey? That big oaf Zacharius is 'Mikey' to her?_

Erwin smiled reassuringly at her. "Mike's fine, Marjorie. He was injured, saving three of our younger Scouts, but he's already almost fully recovered," Erwin lied, so sincerely that Levi would have believed Zacharius wasn't still bedridden, if he hadn't known better.

"Oh, thank the Good Lord!" the woman said, crossing herself openly, to Levi's surprise. Very few people dared to openly show such religious fervor, except for the Wallists.

"Now Marjorie, you've fluttered about the Commander enough. We've a passel of hungry Scouts to feed. I promised the Commander we'd roast him up some capons. You have Bertram fetch you four of our plumpest birds, while I situate the Commander and his men," the innkeeper gently scolded.

"Tch. Thirty years and it's 'off to the kitchen with you Marjorie'. Honestly, if you weren't such a fine catch, save for your poor manners, I'd throw you back and try for another," the woman said, shaking her head in mock dismay, her eyes, which had been all but brimming with tears a few moments ago twinkling now in merriment.

The man smiled lovingly at his wife and then warmly at them. "Now then, let me get you your keys." He went into a back room and moments later emerged with six brass keys, each with a small wooden charm hanging from it, worn smooth with age, depicting a different animal: horse, cow, pig, dog, cat and turkey.

Erwin accepted them all, then kept the horse key and handed the others to Hange. "You can distribute the rest of these, while Levi and I get settled. The rooms are sized in accordance with the animals on the keychains, which match the pictures painted on the room doors."

Levi added smoothly, "Pair Armin and Jean, Sasha and Mikasa, Eren and Connie, Anders and Bauer, and then you get a room by yourself." By splitting them up that way, it would make it easier for Sasha and Eren to swap roommates, so everyone was a couple, save for Anders and Bauer, unless there was something he didn't yet know about the relationship between those two men.

Erwin didn't argue the rooming arrangements. He turned to the innkeeper. "Douglas, if someone could bring up our saddlebags, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course! You get settled, and we'll bring them up in a jiffy, along with some of Marjorie's liniment. Can I bring you some tea and cookies, to refresh you, before dinner?" he offered.

"No thank you. But I think the Captain and I might be dining in our room tonight," Erwin added unexpectedly. He turned to Hange. "Hange, if we make an early night of it, keep an eye on everyone and make sure they don't indulge too heavily before dinner. We don't want any hangovers tomorrow. Let them know I'm buying, though. They all deserve a little treat, after what we've been through."

"Don't worry. I'll see they don't overindulge, and I'll keep them out of trouble," Hange assured him.

_Tch._ Asking Hange to keep anyone out of trouble was like sending him to guard a jewelry shop, back in the day.

Erwin reclaimed his cane from Hange and then he and Erwin headed for the stairs. Levi scowled at the number and steepness of the steps and then began making his laborious way up them, frustrated by his own lack of speed and dexterity. It was completely ridiculous how impaired he'd become from a simple horse ride. "You did say they have hot showers, right?" Levi grumbled.

"That's why I'm paying the bill instead of billing a lesser inn to the Corps. Trust me, it's worth every coin," Erwin soothed, fortunately for his health not offering to assist him. "This inn is over a hundred years old. All the rooms have piped hot and cold water, with private showers, baths and toilets, like our base, and from the geography, using the same water supply. The rooms are immaculately clean, spacious and well furnished, and the food is phenomenal, equal to anything you might eat in the Capital. We all deserve to be well fed and well rested." Then he leaned into Levi's ear, and Erwin's hot breath sent a shiver of desire through him, even before Erwin whispered, "And well fucked."

Levi fought the urge to grab Erwin by the collar and drag him to their room. _Tch. _As if he could. In reality, Erwin would need to carry him to it bridal style, and that thought, which should have been revolting and humiliating, was so ridiculously appealing it convinced him he was half out of his mind with pain and fatigue. Fuck going down or up those stairs again until morning. Erwin's ridiculous statement about eating dinner in their room suddenly made perfect sense, vermin be damned. He scowled again, hiding a shudder at the thought. "You said clean, and mentioned there aren't bedbugs, but no rats or mice either, right?" he challenged.

"No rodents. Trust me, Marjorie's standards of cleanliness are nearly equal to your own," Erwin claimed, as they finally reached the top of the stairs. Erwin turned left and Levi began heading slowly and stiffly down the corridor, even with his crutches, his weak and aching leg having exhausted him.

Levi could see the concern in Erwin's eyes. "No, I'm not heading back to base, and yes, I'll be fit for the mission. I still have most of another day before we start, and it will be two to four days after that before we should have any opponents to face. I just need to work the kinks out, that's all. I've just gotten soft, lounging around on base."

The look Erwin gave him as he unlocked the room conveyed every word his lips didn't say, at the latter statement, which he'd purposefully thrown out there, to deflect some of Erwin's obvious true concern and doubt about the rest.

"Damn it, Erwin, I fucking admit I'm not at my fighting peak right now, but I'm still better than anyone else here, including you, with the possible exception of Mikasa, so don't look at me like that. There's no way in hell I'm letting you and the brats do this without me." He'd lost Isabel and Furlan to the Titans because he hadn't been there to save them. No way in hell was he letting Erwin go up against those monsters without him. He didn't break his gaze until Erwin nodded.

Erwin waved him into the room first, and Levi looked around skeptically from the doorway, doubting the room could be anywhere near his standards of cleanliness, in spite of Erwin's assurances. It was certainly big. And well furnished, with a huge bed covered by a thick, intricately made quilt, a writing desk and chair, bureau, and pair of armchairs to either side of a low table in front of a river rock fireplace, with three lamp tables, each with a lamp, none of which were currently lit. And a dismayingly large window, letting in the still bright light of the sun. Levi glared at it. As much as he normally loved having an escape route, he despised windows in his bedroom. Anyone could sneak in while they slept.

He swung over on his crutches and looked out onto the innyard, and at the outer walls along both sides of the window. He sighed. The rough stonework was ideal for climbing. It would be ridiculously easy to shimmy up, under the cover of night. The only thing stopping anyone would be the wide expanse of ground increasing the chance of being seen, and the knowledge that Scouts were in the rooms above.

He turned back to face the room. The room truly looked perfect, other than the window, clean and neat, no dust anywhere to be seen, at least upon cursory inspection, the lamp glass and brass gleaming, and not a speck of ash in the fireplace.

0 0 0

"I'm sorry. All the rooms have windows," Erwin apologized, seeing Levi's scowl at it. "If it makes you uncomfortable, we can move the bureau to block it, at least part way, but I highly doubt anyone is going to climb in from the innyard, especially after seeing Scouts are using these rooms. Not many people are that suicidal."

"It's fine," Levi grumbled, switching his crutches for his cane, after unfastening and removing his sheathes and gas canisters. Then he hobbled over to the table and sat on one of the thickly upholstered reading chairs and began removing the straps of his harness.

Erwin bit his tongue to keep from offering to assist him. Levi was at his prickliest when injured, when anyone seemed to even remotely doubt his ability to fend for himself.

"Don't just stand there like an ass watching me struggle, help me with my damned straps, so I can soak my fucking leg," Levi snarled.

_Or not._ Erwin was across the room kneeling in front of him in moments. "Sorry." He carefully removed the straps and laid them on the floor beside the chair for the time being and then pulled off his boots.

"Tch. If you ever tire of playing soldier, you could make someone a halfway decent valet," Levi scoffed.

Erwin's jaw clenched and he glared up at Levi, the "playing soldier" barb cutting a little too deep, memories of more than one scathing argument with his father coming to the fore. But the spike of anger was instantly snuffed out by the pain in Levi's stormy grey eyes, something far beyond physical.

"Levi?" Erwin asked, knowing he'd likely not learn the cause.

"It's nothing. Not important."

Erwin was disappointed but not surprised that this time Levi had behaved exactly as expected.

"I'm sorry I'm being such an ass," Levi apologized unexpectedly, as he heaved himself up on his cane.

Erwin rose and embraced him. "It was a long ride, after a hellish morning, and a miserable week, and I know you're in pain. I'm not taking it personally. I just wish there was something more I could do to help than massage you," he said sincerely.

"Tch. You're a lot more than a freaking masseuse, Erwin," Levi asserted, wrapping himself around Erwin and pulling him down for a kiss.

Erwin enthusiastically responded, but kept it far shorter than he would have liked, knowing Levi was still hurting. "Come on. Let's get you into the shower and then the tub," Erwin urged, forestalling the inevitable scowl of protest for breaking the kiss prematurely.

"Alright," Levi agreed, turning for the bathroom, yet a further indication he was truly suffering.

Erwin fought the urge to carry him, allowing him to limp his own way, but ready to catch him if his leg gave out again.

"I should have started using this damned cane a week ago," Levi complained.

"No, you should have stayed on the crutches the way you did. You allowed yourself to heal more quickly and more fully, and you'll ultimately be back up to speed faster because of it," Erwin argued mildly. Levi wasn't used to being injured and Erwin completely empathized with him. The various symptoms of his own concussion had been healing with maddening slowness.

Erwin was relieved to see Levi was actually impressed with the bathroom, even the shower and tub passing his intense scrutiny. "I'll have Marjorie launder both our uniforms tonight," Erwin offered. "She'll hang them in the kitchen or by the fireplace in her and Douglas's room, so they'll be dry by morning. It will mean one less day wearing a dirty uniform. And trust me, it will be clean to your standards," he added, seeing Levi open his mouth in protest.

0 0 0

Levi scowled and then nodded, and began stripping, not bothering to carefully fold his shirt, as he otherwise would have. "I noticed you're on a first name basis with the innkeeper and his wife," Levi fished.

"I've stayed here a few times," Erwin responded casually.

"Tch, fine. Keep your secrets," Levi grumbled, tossing his pants at Erwin's face. Erwin, of course, snatched them out of the air before they hit him.

"Next time I'll throw a boot," Levi threatened reflexively.

"No you won't. You might give me a black eye, and spoil your view," Erwin said smugly.

"Tch." He didn't even try to deny Erwin's claim. Erwin knew full well how handsome he was, and the preternaturally mesmerizing effect of his cerulean eyes.

Levi was thankful there was a separate shower and tub, likely so the husband could shower while the wife bathed. He smirked. Erwin had admitted more than once to enjoying soaking in the tub, which of course, made him the wife. Tonight Levi would be using both, but that was OK. Like he'd told Erwin in his office, he enjoyed being both top and bottom, with a lover he trusted.

Levi sniffed both the thick washcloth and cake of soap the inn provided cautiously. The former smelled freshly laundered, and the latter pleasantly spicy. He washed carefully, predominantly balancing on his left leg, to minimize the agony of his right thigh. Damned spiked pit. The Titan traps has undoubtedly saved the lives of the surviving members of the Corps on their last mission, but they'd nearly cost him his own. He glared at the distorted starburst shaped fresh scars on both the front and back of his thigh, tracing them with his finger, and then he smiled fondly. Mikasa had done a damned fine job. She's saved his leg and his life, they all had: her, Armin and Eren. The three brats were his friends because of that wound. It made his pain now infinitely easier to bear.

He soaped his hair, reveling in the heated water. Erwin was right. A hot bath just might help. It was his only option. He wasn't about to take any painkillers for his leg, not even something Mikasa brewed. He was in unfamiliar territory and needed to stay alert, no matter what side of the Walls they were currently on.

He exited the shower, careful not to slip, hesitating at the edge of the raised tub.

"I could…" Erwin began offering, obviously feeling suicidal again.

"Fuck off," Levi snarled, lifting his leg up and over defiantly and then cursing as his abused thigh muscle spasmed and he pitched forward, throwing out his hands to catch himself, even as he was caught.

"Let me bear your weight. You just swing your left leg in, and then I'll sit you down, and you can punish me for it later," Erwin urged.

Levi complied wordlessly, the concern in Erwin's tone, complete absence of mockery or teasing, and acknowledgment he'd overstepped his bounds keeping him from immediately retaliating.

"Lean back and relax. I'll fill the tub for you, and then massage your leg while it's soaking, to work out the cramps," Erwin ordered. He turned on the water, testing the temperature and then increasing it gradually. Then he disappeared for a moment and reappeared with two jars Levi recognized.

"What the fuck did you bring those for?" Levi asked in surprise, staring at the jars he'd last seen in Erwin's bathroom on base: Erwin's powdered bath soap and his bath oil. Both were ridiculously expensive, purchased in the Capital.

"Because I knew we'd be stopping here, and unlike you, I like to take baths, especially after a long ride. And between the horses and you, I knew I'd be doing a lot of riding," Erwin said suggestively, as he opened the first jar and added a generous quantity of the soap, which frothed into a delicate spice scented foam almost immediately.

"Tch. You like knowing I'm going to smell like you, that everyone we see will instantly know you're mine," Levi said knowingly.

"Actually I was thinking that they would know you were mine, but the corollary is certainly true," Erwin admitted, as he added some of the oil. "I'm going to take my shower, while you bathe, and then massage you, after you've had a chance to soak."

Levi nodded, sitting back in the tub, allowing the tension to drain from him, as the pain lessened, as he watched Erwin begin stripping for his shower.


	5. Chapter 5 - Bath Time

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
As a reminder, the plot line and characters of this second story diverge significantly from the manga and anime. Don't assume anything specific when you hear the name "Reiss".**

Chapter 5 – Bath Time

_Damn it_, Erwin silently cursed, as he removed his scabbards. He never should have brought Levi. He wasn't up to facing Titans. Hell, he'd barely been up to the gentle ride here, and Erwin had kept their pace at a calm walk for more than their cover story of a training mission, or because of their other walking wounded. Levi was recovering from the spike through his thigh, Arlert from the gunshot wound to his bicep, Ackerman from her dislocated shoulder, and Springer's jaw was a throbbing mess. But what choice did he have?

So far, the 104th had miraculously survived attacks by not only the Female Titan, but the Colossal and Armored Titans as well. If some of that was guilt or vestigial loyalty on the part of the Titan shifters, he'd use that to his advantage. He, Levi, Hange, Anders and Bauer were the ones truly in danger, unless the Colossal and Armored finally turned on their fellow former cadets, the way the Female Titan had.

Erwin fingered Yeager's key, which was hidden once more under his shirt, his fingers brushing his familiar bolo as he did so. He exhaled heavily, in relief this time. At least he was the Commander of the Corps again. Humanity's Savior.

His entire life had led to this moment, ever since he turned from the path his father had reluctantly laid out for him, sacrificing whatever slivers of affection or crumbs of esteem the man had at one point held for him, abdicating his claim to his father's title and estates and the name he'd never wanted. As a publically acknowledged but privately scorned and belittled bastard son, he'd adapted from being a scion of the nobility, one of the highborn Reiss family, to his new role with remarkable ease, and no small amount of satisfaction.

_Erwin had been born to Catherine Smith, the eldest daughter of the blacksmith working on Duke Helmut Reiss's estate, who had the misfortune of catching the eye of the man. Reiss's wife Gerta was weak and sickly, unable to slake her husband's base lusts, so he'd looked elsewhere. Erwin knew that technically, Lord Reiss had not raped his mother: instead, the man had brought the full power of his station, instead of the physical power of his body to bear, to force her to lay with him. When his looks and position had not convinced her, he had threatened to release her father from his service and expel him from the estate without a reference, which would have brought poverty and ruin not only to her parents, but to her six brothers and sisters. For the sake of her family, she had submitted to the man, until his wife regained some semblance of health and became gravid with their first child. Then Lord Reiss had cast her aside. But the damage had been done. Catherine was also with child._

_Erwin still marveled at how remarkable a woman, how loving a mother she was. She never held his conception against him, as she easily could have, especially as her unwed pregnancy cost her both her home and her family's love. She could not confess to her parents and siblings what she had sacrificed for them, knowing her father would have killed Lord Reiss for it, condemning her entire family. _

_She named Erwin after her saintly paternal grandfather, a devout Christian, who took her in, though unwed and gravid, without recrimination or judgment, or even asking for explanation. She found healing in his household and hoped her own father might someday acknowledge Erwin, though he unfortunately resembled his father far more than hers, although he had his great-grandfather's remarkable eyes._

_Erwin was blissfully ignorant of the circumstances of his parentage until he was five years old, when a series of disasters struck the Reiss estate. Lord Reiss's five year old son, Mark, was killed in a riding accident, a fall from his pony, when it was startled by a snake. Not a month later, his frail wife died in childbirth, taking his unborn youngest son with her. Suddenly bereft of heirs and even a wife to beget others, when Erwin proved his fitness by miraculously survived the typhus epidemic that beset the estate, claiming the lives of both his mother and great-grandfather, Reiss decided to acknowledge the strong, healthy bastard son he had watched from afar, but otherwise ignored. _

_With her dying breaths, Erwin's mother had told him the secret of his birth, and gave him her legacy, a written record of the circumstances of his conception and birth, and a bundle of additional papers, letters she had written to him, in case he had ever been taken from her. She urged him to hide them from his father, until he was old enough to read and understand them._

_A heartbroken Erwin sought love from the stranger who was his father. Instead, he was greeted with cold efficiency by his father's staff and all but completely ignored by the man. He was informed his new given name was Edward, because Erwin was a peasant's name, and his new surname was Reiss, because he was his father's son. And so, five years after his birth as Erwin Smith, the fatherless son of a loving peasant woman, he was reborn as Edward Reiss, the unloved bastard son of a nobleman._

_He'd never fit in the skin of Edward Reiss. Everyone had loved Gerta and mourned her death and her children's. Erwin had been seen as an interloper from the day he was first brought from his mother's home to his father's estate, and the household never tired of telling him his half-brothers should have been his father's heirs._

_Erwin did everything his father asked of him and more, in a vain attempt to earn the man's love and approval, but he was scorned by both his father and the man's entire household. He endured years of hearing his new name spoken in vicious whispers with the word "bastard" preceding it, or in voices dripping with annoyance, impatience and disappointment, by his various governesses, tutors, his cousins and his uncle, and most painfully of all, by his own father. Had it not been for his mother's secret letters, the love written into every line, he'd have grown up entirely bereft of any affection at all, surrounded by coldness and scorn; instead, he never forgot what it was to be loved. _

_At fourteen he had thought he found the love he'd sought in the eyes and hands and voice of his father's groom, William. But though the man had teasingly flirted with him, he never acted upon his audacious innuendos. After three years of longing, Marie entered his life and he was convinced he had finally found the acceptance and love he'd ached for. But his mother's letters and memories of his great-grandfather also convinced him he had a higher purpose in this world than to live the indolent life of a noble, on the backs of peasants like his mother. _

_He had no interest in the physical arts of love, save for those few tantalizing glimpses he'd witnessed in his father's stables between William and various stableboys, but he was resolved to be the husband Marie deserved. The course of his life was changed when the coldhearted, manipulative ass who had sired him insisted he learn how to please his future wife, to ensure she never strayed from his marriage bed, lest the noble Reiss lineage be further diluted with bastard blood. He'd reluctantly bent to his father's demands, with bitter irony using the forbidden surname Smith at the man's insistence, lest he sully the Reiss name by associating with a common courtesan. _

_Fortunately, Anna had not been at all what he'd expected. She'd known exactly who he was, and who his father was, though she'd played along, only using the pseudonym he'd given. Alongside the physical lessons she'd taught him that night, she'd also taught him something far more important, with those breathlessly eager, honest words: "Even without your wealth and the title you'll inherit someday, with that face and body, you'll have women falling all over themselves to bed you, in or out of wedlock. I'm certain they already are. Don't tell your father, but I'd have been happy to teach you all I know even without any silver crossing my palm." _

_Her words had been eye-opening and empowering. His face, bearing, presence, charisma, and the athletic strength and grace of his body were all tools, all weapons he could wield, without reference to or reliance upon his position, his family. It was tempting, seductively appealing to abandon his birthright, but he'd hesitated to seize the opportunity, once he became enamored with Marie. She deserved to be a Duchess. He couldn't rob her of her destiny, or their future children of their birthright. Tch. What a naïve child he had been, a foolish, lovesick dreamer._

_It was at the cost of his best friend, Nile, that he learned his love for Marie had not been returned, that it was his position and title which had infatuated her, when she ultimately chose the security and stability of Dok's marriage bed over the questionable nobility of his. _

_And so, at seventeen, he entered training for the military, determined to free all of humanity from the oppressive yoke of Titan control of their destiny. He'd always planned to use his true name when joining the military, even before he'd been forced to, when his father forbade him to join as a Reiss. He had wanted to succeed on his own merit, instead of currying special treatment due to his name and station while training. He couldn't abandon his destiny: he was determined to become Humanity's Savior. To do something so monumental that even his father would need to notice, to finally say, "This man is my son," in pride, instead of disdain. _

_His father, of course, retaliated for his arrogant disobedience. Duke Reiss had ensured that his son was tormented and brutalized by his instructors far more harshly than the other cadets. Too stubborn and proud to admit defeat, to come crawling back home to his father with his tail between his legs, Erwin bore every punishment, double duty, harassment and torture they heaped upon him. He honestly might not have even survived training, had it not been for the lifelong friend he met there: Mike Zacharius._

_Erwin smiled, remembering his initial impression of the shifty eyed, sullen, lanky, bony, half-starved ruffian who had been his bunkmate. He'd been half convinced the boy would try to slit his throat in his sleep, or would steal the bread from his mouth, but Mike was far too clever and skilled to do either. Alternately invisible and threatening when he needed to be, Mike ghosted through the dorms and training camp, with an eye to see, an ear to hear, a hand to grasp, and especially oddly, a nose to smell. He'd bartered and sold information, stolen and sold provisions, and somehow even acquired and sold alcohol to his fellow cadets, yet in spite of all his illicit activities, he was miraculously never caught. More amazingly, he was never even suspected. Those solemn, brown eyes in that honest face had even the most cruel instructor eating out of his calloused hands. Those were skills Erwin knew he needed, if he was to survive to graduate. And so he set out upon what he had expected to be a laborious process to befriend the man. _

A knock interrupted his reminiscences. Erwin exited the bathroom, closing the door to afford Levi privacy, and headed to the door to the hall, opening it without bothering to ask who was there, expecting to see one of his men. He stiffened for a moment upon seeing a large, muscular stranger, until he realized he was hold a very familiar pair of saddlebags, along with a glass jar, and he appeared non-threatening. "Commander Erwin? I'm Bertram, sir. I have your saddlebags and Marjorie's liniment for you. Or, well, for your Captain. For his leg," the man bumbled.

"Thank you, Bertram. And I believe congratulations are in order, to you and Charlotte," Erwin offered as he waved the man into the room.

The man grinned widely. "Yes sir! Thank you, sir!" As Bertram laid the saddlebags on the table between the armchairs, Erwin pulled out a small handful of silver. "This is for the two of you, and for the baby," he said, pressing the gift into the man's hand.

Bertram's eyes widened. "But sir!"

"Please, I insist," Erwin said, closing the man's hand around the coins. He trusted Marjorie and Douglas as much as he trusted anyone, but Bertram was an unknown quantity. It was far harder to stab someone in the back once they'd congratulated you on your unborn child and given you a gift for him or her.

"Thank you sir! If you need anything while you're here, just ask me!"

Erwin escorted him out and closed and locked the door behind him.

"Tch. You're only away for a few moments, and you're already holding hands with someone else," an unexpected voice said from the bathroom.

Erwin turned, anxious to explain, all the more urgently when he saw the gleam of an unsheathed blade in Levi's hand. "I thought you were in the tub," Erwin said ridiculously.

"I was. But if you think I'm letting someone I don't know enter the room without protecting you, you're still concussed. It's not like I'm bosom buddies with any of these people," Levi accused, as his naked and dripping body disappeared from the door.

Fortunately, Levi had left the bathroom door partially open, instead of slamming it shut and locking it against him, which Erwin took as an invitation to belatedly explain how he knew them. He brought the liniment with him into the bathroom as a peace offering, to appease his prickly subordinate. He was going to have to mention Mike's name, if he was going to explain about Douglas and Marjorie, and Levi still had never fully forgiven Mike for their initial meeting, though he no longer hated the man.

At least Mike was a commoner, like Levi, not a noble, and given Mike's checkered past, actually someone a lot more like Levi than Levi probably ever realized. _"The bluer the blood, the brighter red when it flows… if you want to rob a royal or noble of all his copper and silver, you need to slice the fucker open." _Levi's words still chilled him. All this time, Levi had thought he was the offspring of some minor, low level, self-important noble line by the innocuous name of Smith. Erwin dreaded Levi every finding out who he truly was. It was far too late to reveal his identity voluntarily. Regardless, he'd lose Levi's trust, and his love with it, as soon as Levi learned he was one of the highest ranking nobility he so despised, his family second in status only to that of the King. He'd honestly prefer to lose his life.

"Erwin, if it's that fucking traumatic, I don't need to know," Levi volunteered unexpectedly.

_Damn it._ He'd obviously let his fears show. That wouldn't do at all. "Sorry. It's not. I was just thinking of something else, unrelated, but I'm fine. I know Douglas and Marjorie because of Mike. They're the closest thing Mike has to parents," Erwin confessed, hoping that would derail Levi's train of thought.

"Zacharius is an orphan?" Levi asked, sounding surprised. "So how come he always says he's going to visit his family, when he takes leave? Does he have a wife and kids I don't know about?"

Erwin smiled in spite of himself. "No. Mike can't stand the smell of most people. He always says women are the worst, the way they douse themselves in perfume. His sense of smell is far too sensitive – he says it actually hurts to smell them."

"Oh. So when he says that, about visiting family, he comes here?" Levi hazarded.

Erwin nodded. He would have been surprised that Levi hadn't figured that out immediately, but family was still an alien concept to Levi, even after all this time aboveground. The closest thing Levi ever had to family had been Isabel and Furlan, except for that psychotic bastard, Kenny Ackerman, and Levi would sure as hell have been better off never knowing the man.

"Forget it. I don't give a shit about Zacharius or these people. Get your ass in the shower, so you can be ready to take care of my leg once I'm done here," Levi ordered.

Erwin balked at both the command and his tone.

"Now, Smith, or you're spending the night on the floor," Levi threatened.

The use of his last name had the desired effect. Erwin instantly got hard and just as quickly headed for the shower. He stood in front of it, and began stripping out of his clothes. It was remarkable, really, that his last name held that kind of power, a testament to the love of his great-grandfather, his mother, and now of this incredible man.

He laid the last of his things on the counter, setting Eren's key on top of his bolo, and entered the shower.

Levi wouldn't care that Erwin wasn't legitimate. He was still the legal heir. Or had been, until he let that dubious honor pass back to his father's younger brother, Rod. Rod Reiss had had legitimate children, and one acknowledged bastard. Everyone had thought the line of succession was assured, and it had been, until all four of Rod Reiss's legitimate children had mysteriously and tragically died, along with their mother, leaving only the illegitimate child. But Historia was a girl, and therefore unable to inherit the Duchy. When his father and uncle both eventually died, the title and lands would revert back to the crown, and Historia would likely end up the mistress of some noble, just as her mother had. That was the lot in life for illegitimate daughters of the nobility, after all.

Erwin ground his teeth, imaging the sweet, smiling, wide-eyed, golden haired little toddler he'd once known becoming nothing better than a purchased plaything for some noble. Historia would be 15 now, the same age as Ackerman, Blouse and Lenz. He wondered if Rod Reiss had been as cold and disapproving of Historia as his older brother, Erwin's father, had been of him. He forced thoughts of his cousin Historia from his mind. It was pointless to think about it. It's not as if he was likely to ever see her again, after all.

He finished his shower and dried off with one of the thick, fluffy towels that smelled of fresh air and sunshine. Not that sunshine had a scent. Or did it? He'd have to ask Mike about that.

"If you help me out of this damned tub, I'll let you massage my leg with that liniment now," Levi offered, as if he was doing him a favor by allowing him to touch him.

Erwin smiled wryly, his melancholy mood lifting. He assisted Levi in levering out of the tub, though he'd gotten out on his own earlier. He would have dried Levi, too, but then he would likely have ended up on his knees in front of Levi, which wouldn't have been a bad thing, but he didn't want Levi standing for a prolonged period of time.

"How about you lie on the bed, so you can be more comfortable, since we're both clean," Erwin suggested.

"Tch. You're just trying to get your dick in my ass," Levi scoffed.

Erwin opened his mouth to deny such selfish intentions, and then shook his head. He couldn't believe he'd almost fallen for that.

Levi smirked proudly, obviously knowing he'd almost gotten Erwin with his blunt words. The self-satisfied smile fled his face as he started to head to the bedroom, though the cane was bearing the bulk of his weight.

_Damn it._ _Levi isn't ready for a mission like this. He's going to end up dead. "_Levi…" Erwin began.

"No. I'm going to lie down, and you're going to massage my leg with that liniment, and you're not going to say a damned word about me staying behind. I don't need to walk, as long as I can fly. I can land on my left leg and push off with it, and use my right primarily for balance. If I'm not there you'll… So I'm going. Accept it," Levi snapped, facing him.

"You do realize I survived a number of missions to the Outside before I even met you," Erwin tried to argue logically.

"Yeah, because you had that damned trained guard dog Zacharius looking out for your ass. You're not fucking going without me. Now either massage my damned leg or give me that shit so I can do it," Levi ordered as he sat on the bed.

Erwin sighed. "Lie down. I'll do it."

Levi was apparently too angry and in too much pain to get aroused, as he likely otherwise would have, and Erwin did nothing to encourage that. Levi hissed and tensed over and over as Erwin worked the kinks out of his abused, damaged leg muscles, until he gradually began to relax, under the warm ministrations of his hands. Erwin wanted to suggest Levi nap before dinner, but he didn't want to be accused of treating him like a child. Instead, once Erwin was done working on the back of his leg, he worked his hands up his side, and then across his back, avoiding touching his ass. He wanted to relax him, not excite him.

After a while, Erwin lowered himself down and lay next to Levi, and the massage became more a gentle backrub, his hands moving with greater care and gentleness as Levi's breathing started to even out. Levi must really have been pushed to his limits, to be falling asleep this easily.

When he finally sounded fully asleep, Erwin stopped caressing him, and instead laid his arm possessively over him, watching him sleep, careful not to succumb to the temptation himself, so he'd be prepared to defend himself if Levi attacked him upon waking, as he had the last time they'd slept beside one another.


	6. Chapter 6 - Tea and Cookies

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 6 – Tea and Cookies 

"Are you finished, Eren?" Mikasa asked, setting down her curry comb.

"Yeah. Hey Armin, are you done?" Eren asked.

"I'm finished too," Armin piped up.

"Us too," Sasha said.

Mikasa figured she was probably speaking for both Connie and Jean.

"We are as well," Anders said, unexpectedly. Mikasa was puzzled for a moment, and then realized they were likely trying to foster cohesiveness in the Squad.

"Stop overanalyzing everything, Mikasa," Eren accused, apparently because of her expression. "Honestly, sometimes you're worse than Armin."

"She's not… wait! What do you mean, worse than me? Since when is thinking a bad thing?" Armin complained.

"Tch. If you want to ask someone about thinking, you picked the wrong person," Jean teased.

"Hey! Watch it hor… Jean," Eren scolded, catching himself just in time. The momentary tension vanished, and everyone headed out of the stable, toward the inn building, their saddlebags slung over their shoulders. The packs were all piled in the stable, with instructions that nothing be touched. Mikasa had volunteered to stay to guard them, but the others had insisted that wouldn't be necessary, and the head groom had been quick to assure her that their supplies would be safe, that he'd see to it.

"I can't wait to have some of that bread," Connie said enthusiastically, as they approached the inn building.

"There's blackberry and apple pie, too," Sasha said, her nose sniffing excitedly, like a hungry puppy.

Jean opened the door, and waved Sasha and then Mikasa inside. Mikasa half expected Jean to let it shut in Eren's face, but instead he let Eren enter before him. Apparently the truce Eren had told her about was holding.

She looked around the impressive large dining room and bar area for Levi, but only saw Hange.

"Gather round, kiddies, gather round. You too, Anders and Bauer," Hange said, holding up four brass keys. "I have your room keys for the night, in case you want to wash up. But Commander Erwin wanted to make sure you knew that he's not only paying for your rooms and meals, but for drinks too, if you want them, as long as you drink in moderation."

"Where's Levi?" Armin asked.

"He and the Commander are in their room. They might be eating dinner up there, but I'll be eating down here, with all of you. Mikasa, you're with Sasha," Hange said, handing her a key with a wooden cow dangling from it. "Eren, you're with Springer," she said, handing them a key with a pig attached. "Armin and Kirstein, you get the dog, and Anders and Bauer the cat. The wooden animal matches the picture on your room door," Hange explained.

"Why can't I be with Sasha?" Connie complained grumpily.

"Because this is a respectable inn, and Sasha's a lady, idiot," Jean chastised.

"But I…," he cut off as Jean bent down and whispered something in his ear. Connie looked at her and Eren and nodded. Apparently Jean had figured out that they could easily swap roommates once they were in the corridor alone upstairs, thereby preserving the veneer of virtue and respectability for her and Sasha. Of course, no one cared that Levi and Erwin or Armin and Jean were rooming together, because no one would suspect anything physical might happen between them, or care if it did. It was both amusing and ridiculous.

"So, do you reprobates want to get drinks?" Hange asked.

"Um… actually, I'd prefer tea, and maybe some cookies or cake or something to go with it," Armin said sheepishly.

Jean smiled. "Tea sounds good to me, too."

Connie frowned. "I don't know whether alcohol or hot tea will hurt my mouth worse," he grumbled.

"Go with the tea, but warm, not hot," Bauer recommended unexpectedly. "Trust me, nothing hurts like alcohol on an open wound."

Remembering the way Levi had thrashed on the bed, even while feverish and delirious, when she'd disinfected his wound with alcohol, Mikasa had to agree, but she didn't want to mention that in front of Connie. He'd likely want to try to prove he was tougher than the Captain by drinking the alcohol. "Tea sounds good," Mikasa agreed.

"OK, sure," Eren nodded.

Sasha nodded silently, as did Anders and Bauer.

"Well, it looks like the Commander gets off easy," Hange said, as she waved down the innkeeper. "Tea and cookies for nine, with milk and honey on the side."

"It will be my pleasure to serve you. Please, we have a washroom and water closet downstairs, in addition to in the rooms, if you'd like to freshen up a bit or use the facilities," he suggested.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Sasha said. "Thank you so much!"

"I'll go with you," Mikasa agreed. "Hange?"

Hange looked startled, like the idea of washing her hands before eating hadn't occurred to her, or perhaps the idea that Mikasa would invite her to join them. Of course, Hange hadn't been grooming her horse, but she had held the reins all day.

"Sure," she said, with a sudden grin.

"We'll go after you get back," Jean said.

The innkeeper waved the men to the largest trestle table, which was surrounded by chairs instead of benches, like some of the smaller ones in the room.

Once they were done washing up, Mikasa sat down next to Eren, and Sasha next to Connie, with Hange sitting between Armin and Anders. Then the men stood and headed to the back.

Just after they left, the door to the inn opened, and a rowdy group of three men swaggered in.

"… so I told her, that's because you never had me in your bed," the tallest of the men said, and the other two laughed uproariously, pounding him on the back.

"That'll teach her," the one with the beard asserted.

"Tch," Mikasa said in disgust, certain she wouldn't have been at all amused by what the men were talking about.

"Douglas! Where are you hiding! We need whiskey!" the shortest of the men hollered, as if compensating for his lack of stature by the loudness of his voice.

"What you need is a bath. And manners," Sasha quipped softly and Hange grinned.

The three impatient men began scanning the room, their eyes halting when they saw the three of them.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Three fine ladies in need of company," the tall one said, in a voice he likely thought sounded smooth, but to Mikasa sounded so oily it made her wish for a bath.

"Give me a break," Sasha muttered, rolling her eyes.

"We're not ladies, we're Scouts. And our comrades are sitting with us. There's plenty of room elsewhere," Mikasa said coldly.

The man turned to her, as if he was about to deny her claim, when a look of startled recognition crossed his face, that made Mikasa look at both Sasha and Hange, to see which one he knew, but they were both looking at him in annoyance.

"My mistake," the man mumbled, grabbing his two friends by their arms and almost physically hauling them towards the bar, instead.

"Anyone that nervous of the military has something to hide," Sasha said suspiciously.

"I'm just glad they didn't try to sit down with us. I don't need to be pulling Eren, Armin, Springer and Kirstein off those guys," Hange said. "And I'm sure Anders and Bauer would have gotten involved too."

"Gotten involved with what?" Anders asked, as he sat, surprising and startling Mikasa. He'd moved as silently and sneakily as Levi. She hadn't even known he was nearby.

"Those three troublemakers started to proposition us from across the room, but lost interest really quickly when we mentioned we were Scouts," Sasha said. "They must be blind or already drunk not to have noticed our jackets and cloaks."

"Really? That's interesting. It's too bad I'm in uniform and they've already seen me sit with you. Otherwise I could have easily learned what they're up to," Anders said confidently.

Douglas came out with a huge tray, with a teapot, and nine cups, plus a small pitcher of milk, a jar of honey, silverware, plates, and a platter containing a veritable mountain of cookies, and he busied himself with serving them. The three strangers, who had seemed so demanding before, patiently waited now, further arousing Mikasa's suspicions, as Eren and the others came out of the back one by one and sat.

Mikasa watched the men at the bar cautiously, but after a single glass of whiskey each, they left the inn. She exhaled, relaxing, not even realizing how tense she'd been. She'd expected some sort of confrontation.

The nine of them talked and drank tea and ate cookies, as if they truly were on some sort of team building training mission, instead of the real thing. Mikasa was relieved to see that after some initial hesitation, Sasha moaned in delight after her first bite of cookie and promptly moved half a dozen more onto her plate. It looked like she'd definitely be eating dinner with them. Mikasa knew Levi would be relieved to hear it.

Connie, on the other hand, looked like he was having trouble eating and drinking, obviously still in pain from his missing tooth. But Mikasa honestly didn't know how else Levi could have proven his point effectively enough for the Military Police to believe.

Of course, she was pretty sure Levi must have realized that what he'd done hadn't actually proved that Connie wasn't a Titan, although she'd make sure of it later, after dinner, or tomorrow morning, if Levi stayed squirreled away with Erwin all night. From what both Armin and Eren had told her, when Eren had his leg bitten off, it had shown no signs of growing back, until he was eaten by the Titan, and he'd certainly healed from the cuts and bruises of childhood at a normal rate. So, unless Connie was eaten by a Titan, and somehow survived, and then emerged from the monster without his tooth having grown back, he could theoretically still be a Titan, though Mikasa doubted he was one. She would have warned Levi forcefully against bringing him, had she thought he was. Frankly, Connie was too hotheaded and not bright enough to hide effectively amongst them and sabotage them, either as a Titan or a man working with them. If he'd been either the Colossal or Armored Titan, he'd likely have revealed himself in any one of half a dozen fights he'd gotten into on base by transforming.

"Mikasa? Is everything alright? You just got this really weird look on your face, and you looked like you were shivering, and it's not cold," Eren asked softly, surprisingly astute for once.

Just hearing his concern made her give him a fond smile and she took his hand, the feeling of him warm and alive driving away those awful memories of when she'd thought he wasn't. "I'm fine. Just thinking too much. About the past, not our future," she quickly qualified, seeing him scowl. The last thing she wanted was for him to worry they might not successfully complete their mission. The quickest way to ensure failure would be for them all to enter into it with doubts.

Eren looked into her eyes intently and then nodded, apparently satisfied.

After the tea, they each went up to their respective rooms with their saddlebags. After checking the hallway to ensure no one was watching, Sasha tugged on Connie's arm, and Mikasa nodded, as she swapped places with him, so she could room with Eren.

The room she and Eren entered was tidy, with a very homey feel, far different than the barracks. It reminded her poignantly of home, both her parents' cabin, and the Yeager's home. Eren's bright eyes lit up when they saw the large bed, and she was going to tease him about it, until she realized his eyes were too bright, too wet looking, and she saw him swallow, hard.

Mikasa embraced him, tenderly. "I know. It reminds me, too," she said softly.

He hugged her back, hard. "Thanks. For seeing, realizing, understanding. It's really nice, but…

"Why don't we unpack our saddlebags and maybe make use of the shower, or bath?" she suggested, wanting to get his mind off his lost parents and home.

"Yeah. That sounds like a good idea," he agreed, to her relief.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Letter Home

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.  
**

**A/N:  
Hope I didn't worry any of you that I wouldn't post today. It's still Thursday, but half a day later than usual, just past 11:30 AM. I usually post at 12:02 AM Pacific time (just to be sure my computer clock is right and it's Thursday), but I was up sick pretty much all last night, in no condition to give this pre-written chapter a final look before posting. Enjoy!**

Chapter 7 – The Letter Home

Armin and Jean entered their room, and Jean stopped so abruptly that Armin banged into him.

"Um Armin? Why is there only one bed? Do you think… does Captain Levi know about... um…."

"About us kissing? No," Armin assured him. "I didn't tell him. I didn't tell anyone but Hange, and the Commander couldn't have seen, and I don't think Eren would have told him, though I'm sure Eren probably told Mikasa. I think all the rooms probably only have one bed. And I think Levi had us room together because everyone else was part of a couple or at least friends, like Bauer and Anders. I mean, I don't think they're lovers.

"Relax, Jean. I'm not going to jump you or anything, or even kiss you again. You made it perfectly clear that you're not ready for something like that, that you may never be. I respect that, I do. I understand. It's a big bed, but if it makes you that uncomfortable, I can sleep on the floor on some blankets, or in the chair, or maybe even in the bathroom, depending upon how big it is." The last thing he wanted to do was scare Jean away.

"Oh. I… um… didn't know that. I've only stayed in a couple of inns while on leave, but never upstairs in the private rooms, just in the common room downstairs, on the floor. I can't believe the Commander paid for all of us to have rooms. I mean, he could have just gotten a room for him and Captain Levi to share, since officers usually get better stuff than their men, and then have the rest of us sleep downstairs. Do you think he's just being nice because he thinks we might all die in four or five days, after we're done with the poisoner in Stohess and head off on our real mission?" Jean asked, discreetly not mentioning Shiganshina.

"No, of course not. I mean, I don't think so," Armin qualified, as he began unpacking his saddlebags into the second drawer of the bureau, taking out his hairbrush, toothbrush, dentrifice, soap, washrag, spare shirt and pants, underwear and socks, leaving the top drawer for Jean, since he was taller. "I don't think he ever plans on his men dying, he just knows there will be casualties, but he's never treated us any differently prior to a mission before. Why don't we just enjoy it and not worry about it, OK? I've never been in a private room like this, with a bathroom and everything. Well, except at the Garrison in Karanese, in the Officers' Quarters, but that was only for a few hours. There was an amazing bed, but I didn't actually get to sleep on it or anything."

"Officers' Quarters? Seriously? When the Captain threw you out of the Corps, you got billeted in Officers' Quarters? Why?" Jean asked, amazed.

"Because of Trost," Armin explained, as he set his saddlebag beside the left side of the bureau and then unfastened his sword sheathes and gas canisters and placed them next to them. "Mikasa had saved the lives of Lieutenant Warner's mother and sister, during the battle, when that idiot merchant had blocked the Gate and trapped the civilians inside. And because of her saving them, the Lieutenant's whole family reconciled from a big fight they'd been having, and he was grateful to her for it. His older brother had died defending Shiganshina, and his father was in the Garrison at Trost, and then he joined, too, and his mother had been terrified they'd both die. But now his sister is actually planning to join the Corps, when she's older. But hopefully, she won't need to. Hopefully, by the time she's old enough, we'll have defeated the Titans." A lot depended upon what they found in Eren's basement. Whatever was hidden there might be the key to winning the war, or at least having a fighting chance.

"Do you want to use the shower first?" Armin offered. "I don't mind waiting. And then, would you maybe like to sit with me, at dinner? I'm… um… not sure Eren and Mikasa will be down anytime soon. Or Sasha and Connie. I mean, their rooms are probably just as nice as this one and… you know," Armin said awkwardly, surprised he didn't feel the usual hot flush he felt when thinking or talking about anyone having sex. The hesitation came more from him not wanting Jean to think he was hinting that they might want to do the same, because neither one of them were ready for that. Or even for more kissing yet, which is why he wanted to make sure Jean realized he didn't expect to shower with him, because frankly, if they did, there would definitely be more kissing, and maybe even sex and crud, now he was hard, just from thinking about Jean naked and wet and kissing him like before. He hoped Jean didn't notice.

Fortunately, Jean has his back to him now, as he began unpacking his own saddlebags into the top drawer. "Yeah. I don't think we'll see any of them. Well, except Anders, Bauer and Hange. And frankly, I'd rather avoid Hange if we can. She sort of creeps me out. But you can take the first shower, if you want," he offered as he started to turn.

"OK!" Armin squeaked as he bolted for the bathroom, trying not to look too strange, hating how high-pitched and nervous he'd sounded.

"Armin, are you feeling OK? Are you sick?" Jean asked in concern.

Armin's face reddened in embarrassment. "No, I'm fine. I just suddenly really needed to urinate," he lied, completely mortified, as he shut the door behind him.

If the shower didn't help calm his unwanted erection, he was going to have to touch himself, with Jean in the other room, and what if he came in and saw? He could lock the door, but Jean might need to use the bathroom while he showered. They were going to be sharing a bed tonight, Jean all warm and muscled and strong and naked and… Wait. He wouldn't be naked, would he? No, they'd be in clothes.

But Armin liked to snuggle, Eren had told him he did, when they all used to sleep together to keep one another warm, him and Eren and Mikasa, after Shiganshina fell. He used to love being spooned between the two of them, because Eren didn't want to sleep next to his sister, because back then that would have been too weird for Eren. Armin missed that, sleeping with them, even though it had been well over three years now that they had, ever since they started military training. It had been so lonely in his bunk, without their warmth, and the safety of their arms around him, and the reassuring sound of their heartbeats, proof that the last two people in the world he loved were still alive.

"Armin? Are you sure you're OK?" Jean asked through the closed door.

"I'm fine!" Armin called, his heart pounding guiltily, flushing the unused toilet to sound convincing, as he pulled off his jacket and began stripping off his maneuver gear harness. At least he wasn't hard anymore.

0 0 0

Jean eyed the bathroom door speculatively. Armin had sounded really flustered and embarrassed. He'd worried at first he might be sick, but he'd belatedly realized he'd probably been thinking a little too much about being naked together in the shower, like on base. Jean fidgeted uncomfortably as he adjusted himself in his suddenly uncomfortably tight pants, at that mental image. Armin said Captain Levi didn't know about them kissing. So it was just dumb luck they were rooming together, good or bad, he wasn't sure which yet.

He looked over at the big, fluffy, beckoning bed and sighed, and then bent over and began undoing his maneuver gear straps. It was weird, not being on base, but not being in a camp either, or even home, with his mother hovering over him and… well that at least took care of his unwanted erection.

Jean knew he should be thankful for his parents, his home, considering so many of his comrades had lost theirs, but they were just so smothering. He'd been so eager to escape from that, thinking he'd join up and become a bigshot, enter the Military Police, become an officer, rich and safe. Women loved men in uniform, after all. But so did men, apparently. Love other men. In uniform. Even when they were in uniform too. _Marco._

He tensed at the familiar clenching pain in his chest, expecting to feel the halfway dreaded reassuring chill and warmth on his back, his shoulder, and was surprised and conversely disturbed when he didn't. Had Marco believed Captain Levi and the others would keep him safe, and finally moved on after all, to whatever awaited all of them after they died?

Jean hadn't even believed in souls or heaven, until Marco died. His parents' faith had always seemed ludicrous to him. Their God couldn't protect anyone. The Walls and the soldiers patrolling them and the streets did that. Men had the power, men like the one he wanted to be.

"Tch." He'd seen how completely powerless they all were, against the Titans. Even Commander Erwin and Captain Levi had nearly died this last time. And he'd thought Marco and Eren and Armin were the ones who had been naïve. _Idiot._

Jean laid his straps on top of his clothes in the bureau drawer, and set his sword sheathes and gas canisters beside his saddlebag on the floor, to the right of the bureau, and then he hung his jacket and cloak on the coatrack beside the door to the hallway. He hung Armin's smaller jacket beside it. Armin had left it lying on the bed, when he'd run for the bathroom.

He looked around the tidy, homey room, at the large bed with the thick, intricate quilt and soft looking pillows, the neat writing desk and chair, the colorful braided rag rug on the softly shining wood floor, the plush padded chair beside a small table, next to the curtained window, a perfect spot for reading, day or night, with the three full oil lamps ready to illuminate everything in a warm glow, though they weren't lit yet. There was nothing to clean or straighten. Everything was perfect, comforting, welcoming.

It reminded him of his mother again, of home, but in a surprisingly good way. He actually missed her, for the first time in a long time. He should probably make an effort to respond to at least some of her letters. He'd almost died this last mission. He could have died after that, if he'd been poisoned, or if the Captain hadn't saved him from the Military Police.

What would Paul and Jeanette Kirstein have thought then, once they heard their son was arrested for treason, as a traitor to humanity, as a Titan spy? He was certain his parents would have denied his guilt vehemently, to anyone who would listen, but they hadn't heard from him in so long. Would they have secretly believed it was true? They could have had people spitting at and cursing them, maybe even had their home vandalized, rocks thrown through their windows or even had it burnt to the ground because of him.

Guilt flaring, Jean headed for the writing desk, and he was relieved and impressed with what he found. Everything he needed was there: a nearly full inkwell and pen, drying sand, two sheets of good quality paper, half a stick of blue sealing wax and even a blank, circular brass seal. He pulled out the chair and sat, and began composing the letter in his head, wanting to get the wording just right, before setting pen to paper.

0 0 0

When Armin opened the bathroom door, self conscious to be shirtless in front of Jean again, he was surprised to see Jean hunched over the writing desk, working so intently that he seemed unaware of his presence. Armin needed help to rebandage his arm, but he didn't want to disturb him. But even as he thought that, Jean looked up.

"Hey. Done with your… shit, Armin. You should bandage that," Jean said, standing.

"I know, but I couldn't do it alone. But it can wait until you're done. What are you writing?" Armin asked curiously.

"A letter home, to my folks," Jean admitted.

Armin frowned in concern. Jean never wrote home, though he received regular letters from there, apparently from his parents. "I was right before. You don't think you'll survive the mission! Jean, you can't go into it thinking that."

Jean approached. "No, that's not why. I mean, yeah, I might not, but hell, it's not even safe on base anymore. I just… I realized I should be a better son. I really lucked out, with the parents I have, and I wanted to let them know I love them. Respond to some of Mom's letters. Not have any regrets, you know? Because life's too short, and can end too unexpectedly and abruptly.

"Even after almost dying on different missions, even being in Yeager Titan's hand on base, there was still that aspect of denial. It never really sank in, that final revelation of, 'Holy shit. I'm going to die.' But this morning, on my knees in chains at the feet of the Military Police I once wanted to be part of, that was different. I was weaponless, helpless… but then, thanks to Captain Levi, I miraculously survived anyway. Today, every day after that, is a gift. I don't think I'll take anything for granted, anymore. Including you."

Armin's breath hitched. _What is Jean saying?_

"I've been thinking about a lot of things. About dying. Living. Marco. You. Us. I can't afford to live my life scared anymore, Armin. This might be all the time we're given, and I don't want to waste it. So if you still want me the way you did before, if I haven't hurt you so badly that you can't even stand the thought of being with me, I'd like to kiss you again. And hold you. And see where things go from there," Jean offered, not sounding at all hesitant or unsure or confused, the way he'd been before.

Armin wasn't about to reject such a wonderful, unexpected gift. "I'd like that," he said, closing the space between him, sighing contentedly as Jean's arms wrapped around his waist.


	8. Chapter 8 - Dinner and Dessert

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

**A/N:  
If you like this story, you might also like my original published work, the four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, by Maria Albert, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 8 – Dinner and Dessert

The slightest change in Levi's breathing was the only warning Erwin had that he was awake before Levi erupted into action and attacked. Fortunately, this time Erwin had stayed awake, and knew what to expect. He wrapped his legs around his subordinate's, clamped a slender wrist in each hand and announced, "Levi it's Erwin. You're safe," before his attack could escalate, risking injury to them both.

Levi's turbulent dark eyes calmed and focused on him, even as he scowled, and then opened his mouth to berate him.

"Before you yell at me again, I didn't fall asleep this time. I knew you'd awaken like this, and I was prepared for it. And you didn't put your knife under the pillow, because you weren't expecting to sleep, so I was perfectly safe," Erwin assured him, over the pounding of his heart. Even knowing what to expect, Levi was remarkably quick and strong.

"You left the window open," Levi accused, as Erwin released him and sat up, frowning, apparently needing to bitch about something, if he couldn't chastise him for sleeping with him.

"If I'd risen to shutter it and close it, I'd have woken you. I watched it the entire time I lay here, to make sure we were both safe," Erwin said calmly. "It's not as if you slept through the night. The sun only set a short while ago. It's probably close to dinner time. Do you want to eat in here, or downstairs, with the others?" He hoped he'd choose the former, but he wouldn't argue the point. It was best to pick his battles with Levi.

"Downstairs. I need to make sure Sasha eats, and that Hange doesn't blow anything up," Levi grumbled, as he reached for his cane.

Erwin bit his tongue to keep from suggesting he use his crutches instead. Levi knew his limitations, though he hated ever admitting to any.

A sharp intake of breath was the only indication Levi gave that his leg hurt, as he limped towards the bathroom. Erwin watched his naked subordinate with more concern than admiration, as he rose himself. It was time to get dressed for dinner, and past time to give their uniforms to Marjorie to clean, but he'd do so after they ate. He was certain she'd be too busy, now. He should have set them out earlier, as he'd intended, but he'd been too distracted by tending to Levi's leg.

He pulled the shutters closed and latched them, and then slid closed and latched the glass window as well. Then he started getting dressed. It was odd being in uniform but not putting on his maneuver gear and scabbards.

Once Levi emerged from the bathroom, he went inside, to use the facilities and wash up. When he was done, they left the room together. He followed Levi down the hall and then the stairs, allowing him to set the pace.

It was easy to tell from the top of the stairs that it was dinner time, from the loud buzz of conversation and delicious aromas wafting up the stairs. When they reached the bottom, the room was impressively crowded. It didn't look like there was a single empty seat, but then, the Blue Boar had been a favorite of travelers for over a century. Erwin was sure the others would have saved them seats, and if they hadn't, Douglas would certainly accommodate them.

Hange enthusiastically waved them over to the largest table in the room. "Commander, Captain! I was just about to send Eren up to knock on your door, in case you wanted to join us, before we started."

Erwin was pleased to see she'd saved them two seats together, between her and Ackerman, both ready with full place settings. He was surprised to see Arlert was on Hange's right, next to Kirstein, instead of near Ackerman and Yeager. Had the three had some sort of falling out?

Levi sat beside Ackerman, and Erwin took the remaining empty seat, between Levi and Hange.

Hange passed him a serving bowl of salad and Erwin's hand tensed as he stared into the large bowl, scanning the contents. "No radishes," she said softly and he relaxed and dished a generous helping up into his bowl, then handed it to Levi. Erwin casually surveyed the table and saw that, without exception, everyone had taken salad, even Blouse, though she was eying her small portion with wariness, rather than enthusiasm. She did have a sizable hunk of bread on her plate, though, which was promising. Erwin sliced a thick slab off the loaf nearest to his plate and added a dollop of butter.

Then Douglas, Marjorie and Bertram appeared, the former two each laden with a platter containing a succulent looking roast chicken, and the latter with two heaping bowls of steamed vegetables.

Douglas greeted him warmly as he set his bird down in front of him. "The two other birds, the potatoes and the rest of the vegetables are in back. We won't be but a moment," he promised.

"Thank you Douglas. Marjorie, you've outdone yourself," Erwin added with a warm smile.

"Oh, posh, you say that every time you come here," Marjorie complained with a happy grin.

After all the food was brought and everyone had filled their plates, Erwin was intrigued to see Anders mutter silently over his meal with his head bowed, before he dug in, the way his great-grandfather and mother used to, and Erwin had, until he moved to his father's house, and he noted that Marjorie's eyes lit with approval. For a wistful moment he missed saying grace before his meal, and debated offering up a quick prayer of his own, for the first time in decades.

"Idiot," Levi scoffed, his eyes on Anders.

Erwin was glad then that he'd hesitated, but couldn't let that pass without comment. "Not everyone's an atheist, Levi. He's entitled to his beliefs," Erwin chided mildly, surprised Anders' prayer would bother him.

"Tch," was Levi's predictable response.

Erwin was pleased to see everyone chatting together as they ate, as if they'd been a team for years, instead of less than a day, in some cases. There were smiles and laughter too, instead of forced, tense rambling. All of it indicated that, even knowing their upcoming mission, the men weren't debilitated by fear. It boded well. This dinner was exactly what he'd been hoping for, when he planned for them to stop here, a welcome respite before the trials to come.

He casually made sure Blouse was eating and was thankful that she seemed to be over her earlier reticence, although her plate wasn't full to overflowing and she wasn't eating with the usual gluttony for which she was known.

"How's your leg, Levi?" Ackerman asked, her blunt question making Erwin silently wince.

"Hurts like a bitch," Levi admitted, to Erwin's surprise. "But a lot less than it did earlier. I soaked in a hot bath, and Erwin massaged it with liniment the innkeeper's wife, Marjorie gave him. I got some sleep, and I'll get more tonight. I'll be good for tomorrow and after," he assured her, further impressing Erwin with his blunt honesty. He was speaking to her as if she was his doctor. Hell, he was a lot more forthright with her than he'd ever been with any physician who had tended to him, since joining the Scouts. Normally, he just gruffly insisted that he was "fine", regardless of his level of injury.

"Good. I'll ask her what's in it, and what else she has in her herb garden. I got my mother's book back from Doctor Donaldson and brought it with me, to supplement the medical supplies we have, since there might be some herbs still growing wild in that garden on the training grounds," Ackerman said, discreetly referring to Yeager's house.

"Excellent," Levi said with approval.

"Marjorie gave Connie a salve for his jaw too, that's apparently helped a lot," she added softly.

"Good. The twit needs to eat," Levi said approvingly. "How's Armin's arm?"

"It's healing well, and fortunately his movement's not impaired," she reported.

That was reassuring to hear.

"And your own arm? I didn't expect you to wear the sling while you were riding, but I noticed you don't have it on now, either," Levi commented.

"I don't need it. I'm fine, and I'm being careful not to strain it. I can give your cravat back to you tomorrow, though I'm sure you brought at least one extra, in addition to the one you're wearing," she replied.

He nodded wordlessly.

When they grew silent, busying themselves with eating, Erwin listened to the ebb and flow of conversation around him, participating where warranted.

Once dinner was finished, Douglas brought tea and apple and blackberry pie for dessert. Levi teased Mikasa about preferring blackberry to apple, and Erwin was glad he got the reference now. It really was apt, comparing Levi to a blackberry bush, all bristly thorns.

"I miss Blackberry," Arlert piped up, referring to his kitten.

"You'll see him again soon enough, brat. Meanwhile, Berner will take good care of him for you, and he's got Ichigo to keep him company," Levi assured him.

Once they were done, everyone headed upstairs, breaking into pairs. Erwin noted that, as expected, Springer joined Blouse, and Ackerman paired with Yeager. It seemed his subordinates were just as eager to take advantage of the comfortable beds with the partner of their choice as he was.

Belatedly, Erwin remembered the uniforms needing to be cleaned, and he excused himself, carrying them downstairs. Marjorie assured him she'd take care of them, in spite of the lateness of the hour.

He climbed the stairs, knocked, opened the door, and then froze in the doorway. Levi was on the bed, wearing nothing but a smug smile, a leather collar dangling from his index finger, and a set of maneuver gear straps too long for him laid out at his feet.

"You told me to bring whatever 'additional equipment' I wanted for tonight, and I remembered a certain promise you made, about wearing nothing but your gear and a leather collar," Levi said wickedly.

Every rational thought fled Erwin's head as he closed and locked the door behind him and obediently headed for the bed.


	9. Chapter 9 - Restless

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 9 – Restless

Levi bit back both a sigh and a groan as he sat up, his leg not the only aching portion of his anatomy, though he didn't regret a single thrust, bite or bruise. Erwin had given as good as he'd gotten, and had been remarkably creative and surprisingly uninhibited for someone normally so carefully controlled. But then, though the man had been all but completely inexperienced, he'd never seemed intimidated by Levi's many taunts over the years and had come up with his own share of flirtations.

The cracks under and around the door to the lit hall and the moonlit seams around the shuttered window allowed just enough light in for Levi to see his crutches by, now that the single large lit oil lamp beside the bed had burned dry. Their lovemaking had lasted for hours, everything he had ever dreamt of, and he'd been dreaming of the man for years.

Levi carefully pulled his crutches over, ensuring they didn't fall. He rose reluctantly, but slowly, not wanting to wake Erwin, who was lying in a naked, sweaty, satiated, exhausted heap on the bed, still wearing his gear and the collar. Levi ached to stay in bed with him, salty sweat and sticky fluids aside, but he'd never endanger Erwin willingly. With a quiet sigh of longing he snatched up his pillow and draped the spare blanket over his shoulders, and silently headed for the bathroom.

Once inside, he shut the door, and after a brief hesitation, bolted it, to ensure Erwin didn't wake him while within striking range. Then he used his Corps lighter to locate the oil lamp, and lit it. He sighed heavily, and shoulders down in frustration and dejection, he laid the blanket in the tub and propped the pillow against the end away from the faucet. He sure as hell wasn't sleeping on the floor, but he couldn't risk sleeping with Erwin, not when he knew that at some point during the night or morning he'd startle awake, and reflexively attack and try to kill him, like the last two times they had lain together while he slept.

He couldn't sleep in such an insecure room, either, when no one would be alert and on guard. Shutters could easily be jimmied open and… _fuck._ Erwin. He hadn't thought this through, which just showed how exhausted he was. He couldn't leave Erwin asleep and unguarded. _Damn it!_

Levi resisted the almost overwhelming urge to wash himself; the need to protect Erwin was stronger than his own discomfort. He lifted the blanket and pillow and blew out the lamp, then closed his eyes, waiting for his night vision to be restored, before unlocking the door and exiting the bathroom. He headed for his neatly folded pile of clothes on the chair and shook them out, his customary check for insects in a strange place, to be safe, and then dressed in his shirt and pants, foregoing his jacket and boots.

He headed for the door to the room, and with a shudder at the thought of sleeping on the floor, regardless of how clean it appeared to be, laid his blanket down there, knowing the risk he was taking if there were hidden vermin, in spite of Erwin's assurances. But this way, anyone trying to enter the room would have to go through him first. And anyone entering through the window would be backlit by the moonlight, a perfect target for one of his throwing knives.

He lowered himself down onto the blanket, gritting his teeth against the strain to his healing thigh muscles and his other more pleasant aches. He hated being injured. Now, of all times, it could prove deadly. They'd likely face an entire army of Titans at Shiganshina, and it could unfortunately well literally be one, a force organized against them, thanks to Jean's accurate deduction and his big mouth. Of course, it was more likely the spies would try to kill them in the Underground or inside the tunnel, assuming they could locate the opening to the passageway on the Shiganshina side. _Shit._ Of course, some Titans had seen them enter from that end. Would they remember? Could they transmit that knowledge to others? They couldn't afford to underestimate those bastards again.

Levi lay down and forced himself to relax, to breathe deeply and evenly. He needed to sleep, in order to protect Erwin and the brats and the rest of them in Shiganshina, to the best of his ability. The wooden frame of the old building creaked and Levi jumped, cursing himself for it in the next moment, as he realized it was just the ancient timbers settling. He knew the difference between house noise and infestation, damn it! But he was hyperaware and on edge, automatically listening for scuttling and chittering, scratching and gnawing, as he always did when trying to sleep in an unfamiliar place. His recent experiences with the bugs in the underground passageway and the rats on base had left him more on edge than he had been in years. _Don't be a paranoid ass. You can't backslide any further. Erwin promised it's clean, that it's safe, and he'd never lie to you, especially not about this._

He used every trick and argument he knew to try to force himself to sleep, consciously relaxing every muscle, one after the other and using the meditation techniques Hange had taught him to combat his insomnia, after Petr… he forced thoughts of his dead Squad from his head, instead flooding his mind with images of Erwin, Armin, Mikasa, Eren and Sasha, safe and smiling. Finally, at long last, he felt exhaustion overtake him.

0 0 0

Levi sprang to his feet, knife in hand, cursing as his instincts failed to account for his wounded leg. His gaze shot to the window and then the bed, but the shutters were still secure and Erwin was sleeping soundly. _So what …?_

There was a thumping sound from the hall and a muffled yelp, the unmistakable sounds of a fight. Levi snatched up his crutches, unbolted and yanked open the door, and headed left, cursing his wounded leg, his bare feet, and lack of both maneuver gear and swords, thankful for the many knives secreted upon his person and the dim lighting of the corridor, thanks to a single strategically positioned large oil lamp.

He stopped in front of what should have been Sasha's and Mikasa's door, had they not swapped roommates, the source of the sounds. He hesitated for only a moment, thinking perhaps it had been the sounds of fucking, not fighting he had heard, but then tore open the door, unwilling to take that risk, and not giving a shit if he interrupted either couple.

He darted a quick glance inside rather than rushing in, to protect himself, rather than anyone's dignity, freezing as the light spilling in both from the hall and the wide open window illuminated the all too familiar flash of a knife across a throat, the spray of blood, and the wildly thrashing death throes of the victim, for a horrific moment thinking the murderer was Kenny, that he was moments too late to save either Sasha or Mikasa, until he recognized Sasha's wild, blood-splattered face and gasping form and realized she was the one holding the knife.

"How many?" Levi demanded, as he confirmed the man who'd just stilled in her arms was a stranger, and not Springer. He scanned the room for either Mikasa or Springer, and for other assailants, but saw no one, live or dead, though they could well be on the floor on the other side of the bed, or in the bathroom.

Heart pounding with both adrenaline, and terror for Mikasa, Levi checked beside the bed, even as a shadow blotted out the light from the hall. He spun, knife raised to throw, but fortunately recognized Eren's and Mikasa's distinctive silhouettes. "Thank fuck! Check the bathroom for more of them, but be careful!" he ordered, as he headed for the window.

"**CONNIE!"** Sasha's cry was shrill, frantic and eardrum shattering, as she ran towards him, then past him, to the window.

_Shit._ He followed and peered out, expecting to see Springer lying dead on the ground two stories beneath it, but instead, he saw a limp form too large to be him, and no sign of the little shit.

"What happened?" Levi demanded.

"Connie… d…dove into the other one and they… f… fell out the w… window. He w… wasn't w… wearing his g… gear… " Sasha stammered, shaking, tears streaming down her pale face.

_Fuck._ She was in shock. Another shadow appeared and Levi tensed, his head jerking toward the door. "Jean, Armin, check the rapist's body in the courtyard to make sure he's dead and find Springer, but be fucking careful!" Levi commanded.

They nodded, wide-eyed, and disappeared.

Levi dropped the crutches and balanced on his left foot, and wrenched the knife from Sasha's hand and then shook her, but she just stared unseeing. He yanked her into his arms and embraced her, needing to shock her back to full awareness, not giving a shit about the blood covering her. Her wild trembling instantly stopped as she froze. He held her tight and inhaled the scent of her hair deeply, before pulling back, releasing her. "I thought that might work, that I could startle you out of your shock. Now tell me what happened, Sasha."

She took a shuddering breath, pulling back and hugging her arms around her chest. Belatedly, Levi realized she was wearing her uniform shirt, mostly unbuttoned, and nothing else, except perhaps underwear. The shirt fell to mid thigh. If these men had succeeded in hurting her, he'd chop their bodies to pieces. If the other one was still alive, he'd take his time doing it, returning any pain he'd caused her a hundredfold, and let her help him.

"C… Connie and I were asleep. We locked the door, but we left the window open because… C… Connie is like a f… furnace, and it's too hot in bed with him, otherwise. I woke up to a yell and thud, and th… that man was s… standing over me w… with that kn…knife. We f… fought and I s… saw Connie and another man fall out the window and I c…cut the throat of the one I was fighting so I could go l… look for Connie."

So that bastard had planned to hold a knife to her throat while he took her. His mistake. He obviously didn't know she was a Scout. Had they seen her through the window, or had someone in the inn told them which room was the girls'? No, they hadn't known how they'd assigned the rooms, unless the staff had come in with firewood or oil or something.

Erwin, Hange, Anders and Bauer appeared in the doorway and then entered the room.

"What happened?" Erwin demanded, a sword in each hand, at his sides. Erwin was wearing nothing but a half buttoned shirt, still barelegged other than his maneuver gear straps, apparently unable to get his tight pants on over them and not wanting to waste time removing them. He'd taken off the incriminating collar, though.

"Commander, Captain, this man, he's one of the three who were accosting the women earlier," Anders volunteered, after studying the man.

Levi frowned. "What do you mean accosting? What the fuck happened? Where the hell were the rest of you? Why didn't anyone tell us? And that means they knew she was a Scout. Either they were complete idiots, or this wasn't just an attempted rape."

Sasha's eyes widened. "I don't think it was at all. That man, the dead one outside, I just remembered. He said, 'She's not here' while I was fighting the other one, and he sounded really upset."

Levi's eyes flew to Mikasa, thankful that he hadn't sent her and Eren outside. Or was it Hange they were after, and he had thought all three women were in one room? _Fuck!_ Where were Armin and Jean? Had he sent them both into an ambush? He opened his mouth to order Anders and Bauer to check, when Springer appeared in the doorway, stark naked, bloody and filthy, looking whipped to shit, Jean's arm wrapped around him, supporting him.

"**CONNIE!"** Sasha ran to him but Armin body blocked her.

"Be careful, Sasha. He messed up his leg and his arms are all cut up, but he likely has other injuries from that fall too," Armin cautioned.

She nodded and he let her pass.

"Hange, you examine and treat Springer. Springer, did you see more of them, in addition to the one on the ground? Anders said there were at least three," Levi demanded.

"There was a third one in the yard outside, but he ran to the stable. I couldn't chase him and he took off on a horse, before Jean and Armin got there, and they refused to go after him," he bitched.

"Good. At least two of the three of you have sense. The last thing we need is to be separated and led into an ambush in the dark. It sounds like these bastards were specifically targeting either Mikasa or Hange, and they had saddled horses ready for their escape. Bring in that body from downstairs. We need to search them both. Maybe we'll get lucky and find some clue as to what this was all about," Levi stated, but he doubted it. Good luck and Scouts seldom mixed.

"Commander Erwin? Is everything alright?" Douglas asked in alarm from the hall.

Erwin pulled the man aside and either filled him in, or spun a story. Levi didn't give a shit. Although he was impressed how calm and in charge Erwin could look, blatantly dressed for sex, especially covered in what were visible love bites, because neither one of them had expected to be walking around without pants or in an unbuttoned shirt in front of their subordinates.

"Captain Levi. It was Mikasa they were after," Anders said grimly, handing him a creased, blood spattered piece of paper.

Levi took it, avoiding the gore and felt the blood drain from his face. "Fuck." There was an excellent likeness of Mikasa's face on the paper and the caption, "Dead with proof, Scout Mikasa Ackerman, 5,000 silver." It was a woodblock printed bounty poster, which meant there could be hundreds of them, even thousands. For 5,000 silver, most of the men he knew would murder their own mothers. Well, most of the men he knew before the Scouts. And most of those bitches would have deserved it, reward or not. "Erwin," he said, handing the bloody poster to him.

Erwin scanned it, stony-faced. "I doubt they'll risk trying again tonight, but as soon as we're all dressed, including maneuver gear and full weapons, Kirstein and I will guard Yeager's door, Arlert and Yeager will guard Ackerman inside Yeager's room, and Anders and Bauer, you guard the inn from the yard, for the remainder of the night. Blouse, you and Springer are exempt from guard duty. You're to room with Hange, and try to get some sleep. The same goes for you Levi, but in our room. Levi and I will guard Ackerman until you're all ready."

"Yes sir," the others all said, as Levi kept silent, biting back his protests, even as he seethed with fury at the thought of someone targeting Mikasa, and attacking Sasha. He'd been sleeping while she'd nearly been killed.

"Levi, it's not your fault. I'm alright and Mikasa's safe, now that we'll be on our guard. Connie's the one who was hurt, protecting us both," Sasha said unexpectedly.

He must have been betraying his thoughts, for her to say that. "I owe the brat for that. Although you did a damned fine job saving yourself," he said, allowing his pride in her to show.

To his surprise, she grinned, and a wave of relief seeing it, after she'd been so traumatized, left him weak kneed. "You called him a brat," she said happily.

Connie glared at them both, obviously not recognizing the term as the unintended compliment it had been. _Fuck. Connie._ He'd just thought of Springer as Connie. _God damn it!_ He didn't need or want any more friends, especially not an obnoxious little shit like that irritant. "Tch," Levi grumbled, scowling at her. "Go calm your boyfriend down."

"You too," she suggested softly, and Levi looked over at Erwin in surprise and nodded, seeing how tightly strung he was. Belatedly, he realized that disappearing from the room without a word and the subsequent sounds of chaos had probably worried the shit out of Erwin.

The others left to dress, and Levi headed over to Erwin. "I had my knives. I wasn't in any danger," Levi claimed.

"And if they'd had guns?" Erwin challenged.

_Shit_. Then I likely would have gotten my head blown off, when I opened the door, had Sasha been less skilled. "They're my men, my Squad," he argued, the only excuse Erwin would accept.

"One of these days, your confidence is going to get you killed, and I don't want to live to see it," Erwin said, barely audibly.

_Fuck._ Erwin was saying he'd rather die than live without him. Which was a problem. Because he felt the same. It didn't bode well for either of their futures.


	10. Chapter 10 - Speculations

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 10 – Speculations

Sasha had known Connie was a scrapper, but she'd had no idea exactly what a badass he was, how fast and tough and strong. How indestructible. When they talked about what happened, he'd told her that he'd been woken out of a sound sleep by the quiet steps of their attackers, he'd fought the first man and simultaneously called out to warn her, allowing her the time she'd needed to fight off her own attacker without injury, even as Connie's forearms were sliced up by the other man's blade. When Connie had knocked the man out the window, he'd kept his attacker between him and the ground, using his body to cushion his own impact.

But in spite of what a tough guy Connie was, between the blood he'd lost that morning from his tooth, and the attack, he was weak and dizzy. In addition to the knife wounds on his forearms, he'd twisted his right knee, though he fortunately hadn't broken any bones that he or Hange could tell. Sasha hoped Levi would be able to rely on his cane now, because she was afraid Connie was going to need his crutches. Fortunately Connie and Levi were nearly the same height, though Levi was slightly taller. Of course, Connie would doubly hate using the crutches, because they made him look weak, and they were Levi's.

Connie was sleeping now. Sasha watched his deep, even breathing enviously, reaching out her hand to sooth the scowl between his eyebrows. He looked angry, even in his sleep. She was sure he wouldn't be sleeping at all, if the fight hadn't taken so much out of him. He should probably stay behind, in Stohess, while they went on to Eren's basement. Except from what she'd heard from Armin, Levi had travelled most of the way by boat in the tunnel, so Connie would have some time to heal and regain his strength and dexterity, before Shiganshina.

"You're supposed to be trying to sleep too," Hange scolded.

Sasha sighed. "I'm worried about Connie. About all of us. Is Mikasa the only one being targeted, or do we each have posters out there, with prices on our heads? Is this the poisoner trying to finish the work he started, or the Titan spies, or someone we don't even know about? I've never felt this way before and I hate it. I'm used to being the hunter, not the prey. Well, except when we're fighting the Titans."

"Try not to let it keep you awake. Levi will be able to learn who put the price on Mikasa's head. From what he told me, Anders likely will be able to, too. Mike would too, if he was here. So we'll know soon enough," Hange soothed.

"You mean Squad Leader Zacharius? He had connections in the underworld too?" Sasha asked in surprise.

Hange blinked and then grinned, that crazy look she got, usually only when talking about Titans. "Yeah, our little Mikey was quite the con artist and thief, back in the day. He and Levi would have likely butted heads even if he hadn't been the one to bully Levi for Erwin."

"Bully Levi? But why would the Commander want to do that?" Sasha asked, perplexed.

"Levi never told you the story about how Erwin captured him? Or just not the part about Mike almost drowning him in sewage?" she asked, sounding entirely too gleeful, considering the horrific image she'd just painted.

"Squad Leader Zacharius did that? How is he still breathing?" Sasha asked, astonished. She would have expected Levi to knife him in his sleep for something like that.

"Beats me. It must have something to do with how much Erwin values Mike. Mike's like a brother to Erwin. At least, I'm pretty sure that's all that was ever between them, although I know Levi's had his doubts, over the years, since Mike doesn't openly date anyone. Or use the brothels," Hange added.

All of that was more than she wanted to know, frankly. "I… um… think I'd better try to get some sleep now," Sasha said weakly. Commander Erwin and Squad Leader Zacharius? She couldn't picture it. Somehow the thought of Levi with Erwin was really hot, but the thought of Erwin and Zacharius was just… weird.

"I thought you might," Hange said smugly, and Sasha belatedly realized that had apparently been Hange's plan all along. It was a move worthy of Levi. No wonder the two were friends.

0 0 0

Levi felt helpless, which made him both furious and terrified. _Who wants Mikasa dead? Why?_ Had someone who had known he used to be Kenny Ackerman's whipped dog made a stupid assumption that, because Mikasa had the same last name as Kenny and with their black hair they looked a little like one another, they were related? Were they trying to get at him or Kenny through her? If so, that person was an idiot. Mikasa had gotten her looks from her Japanese mother and Kenny never gave a flying fuck about anyone except himself, even if Kenny and Mikasa's father had actually been somehow been related, as Levi had wondered ever since hearing her last name.

Had they been? Hell, had Kenny maybe even been responsible for Nathaniel and Yuri Ackerman's deaths? Had Kenny been the one those human traffickers had planned to sell Mikasa to, and they'd just assumed the wrong reason? In spite of Kenny claiming to be Levi's biological father, which was absolute fucking bullshit, part of the head games that insane fucker had delighted in playing, from all Levi had seen Kenny Ackerman didn't have a sex drive. He seemed to get the same physical and psychological thrill out of slitting throats and torturing people that most others got out of sex.

Reluctantly, Levi admitted he knew nothing about Kenny's past, who he was or why he had indulged in a years' long killing spree against the Military Police, which he'd abruptly ended, seemingly without reason. Levi had tried to learn, but that monster's past was even more clouded than his own. And now, in the darkest depths of irony, that fucker was in the Military Police himself.

Levi forced himself to lie down on the bed. Even if he wouldn't sleep, he could at least prop up and rest his leg. It looked like he wouldn't have the luxury of his crutches tomorrow. Connie needed them more than he did.

_Fuck._ _Connie._ He'd never expected that annoying twerp to become one of his brats. Levi sighed. Connie had protected Sasha and shown himself to be a surprisingly indestructible little shit. Which meant now he'd have to try to make peace with the idiot, and make sure he knew why he'd kicked him. Too bad he didn't have preternaturally captivating eyes like Erwin's, that he could use to entrance Connie the way Erwin had done to him. Although the last thing he wanted was the brat falling for him. Not that there was any chance of that happening, thank fuck.

0 0 0

"Eren, you need to calm down. I wasn't hurt. I wasn't even there," Mikasa reasoned.

"Calm down? There could be thousands of those posters out there, Mikasa! You need to wear the hood of your cloak up with your scarf wrapped around… no, you need to give me you scarf, or pack it away. It was in the picture." Eren was pacing back and forth, running his hand through his messy hair over and over.

"He's right Mikasa. Or one of us should wear it. Maybe I could color my hair, using bootblack or something, and you could bleach your hair?" Armin suggested.

Mikasa rolled her eyes. Now even Armin, always the calm, logical one, was panicking? "There's no way I'm letting you or anyone else become a target instead of me. I'm sure when we leave here we'll all be wearing our hoods up, to confuse any in a potential ambush. And once we're in Stohess, Levi will likely be able to learn who put the bounty on my head, if not why, and to stop the posters from circulating further."

"That won't help, not if hundreds of men are already targeting you," Eren said scowling.

"After we capture and question the poisoner it won't matter. We'll be on our training mission, away from everyone," Mikasa reminded them. She'd worry about being targeted and hunted once they survived Shiganshina. Now it would only be a distraction, and they couldn't afford to begin this mission distracted.

0 0 0

Jean was ready to jump out of his skin, more than because Sasha and Connie had almost been killed, and Mikasa was being targeted. He'd never spent an extended period of time alone with Commander Erwin. The man was intimidating as hell, especially now. Jean was only glad he wasn't the one he was angry with and he was thankful that, for the moment at least, Marco's ghost wasn't present. He didn't know how he'd be able to play off his presence, and he didn't want the Commander thinking he was crazy.

"What's on your mind, Kirstein?" Erwin asked perceptively.

"Nothing important, sir. Although… never mind. I'm sure you've already thought of the same strategies for tomorrow, to protect Mikasa, and I wouldn't want to say anything aloud, where the wrong person might overhear somehow. I'm… uh… sorry for that. What I said last night, in the barracks. I didn't realize I might be endangering the mission," Jean apologized.

Erwin sighed. "Understood. It was unfortunate, but your loyalty, however misplaced it might be, is commendable."

_Damn._ _The Commander actually thinks Reiner, Bertolt, Ymir or Krista could be the Titan spies._ If it was true, it meant that Reiner was likely the Armored Titan and Bertolt the Colossal Titan, like he'd wondered. So were Ymir and Krista innocent then, or working with them?

Unless, of course, Commander Erwin really was one of the Titans, and just trying to divert suspicion? Although from the love bites and bruises Jean had seen, he doubted it. Depending upon how old they were, at least. What if they'd been fresh yet they were already gone? Jean flicked his eyes towards Erwin and hastily away again, when his eyes met Erwin's ice blue, assessing gaze. _Shit._

"Out with it, Kirstein. That's an order," Erwin clarified, in a tone brooking no refusal.

"I… um… Commander Erwin, I need to see the love bite on your chest, sir," Jean said, tensing, fisting his hands to keep from gripping the hilts of his swords.

Erwin's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed.

"To make sure it's still there, that it hasn't gotten smaller or already healed," Jean clarified, feeling like an idiot, even as his heart raced. The Commander could easily refuse, which wouldn't necessarily make him a Titan but…

"You think I might be a Titan?" Erwin asked in dawning understanding, the look of incredulity on his face reassuring.

_In for a penny, in for a pound._ It was too late now, in any case. "Yes sir. Last night, when I was trying to figure out who the spies might be, it occurred to me that you and Squad Leader Zacharius had the right proportions and coloration and opportunity to be the Armored Titan and the Colossal Titan. Neither of you were present during either attack, and you've both survived numerous missions to the Outside relatively unscathed, many of which have ended disastrously for your men. It's quite possible you've both been faking the extent of your injuries, to conceal the fact that you healed fully from them far too quickly," Jean said bravely.

Erwin's eyes had widened again, in surprise, and then he looked thoughtful. "I see. Do you have other suspects, or are you convinced it's the two of us?" he asked so quietly and with such unconcern, it made Jean shiver.

Jean swallowed. He should have kept his mouth shut. It had been especially stupid to voice his suspicions while they were alone in the corridor, without any witnesses, but he'd had to know. "No sir, I'm not certain. I also suspected Connie and Armin, Captain Levi, and Bertolt and Reiner for similar reasons: looks, survival, opportunity and ability. I now have conclusive proof Connie and Armin aren't Titans, and Captain Levi, because of Connie's tooth, and what Armin told me of the Captain's injury, how it has definitely been healing at a normal rate, as has Armin's own wound. I'd like to think Reiner and Bertolt can't be Titan spies, but I don't have any proof. I also hope it's not you, sir."

Jean jumped when the door to the room they were guarding unexpectedly opened. He was shocked to see Armin, Eren and Mikasa all standing there, looking tense and alert, bladed swords in their hands, though they were at their sides.

"Sir, I think it would be a good idea for you to accede to Jean's request. We need to see your bruises," Armin said, his voice surprisingly determined and commanding, but also apologetic.

"Really? So you three also think I'm a Titan?" Erwin asked, his voice impassive.

"No sir. The swords are just a precaution, but we need to be sure, because for us to continue to ride with you, if we have doubts, they could prove catastrophic. Hesitation and lack of trust could doom our mission to failure, and get us all killed. So please show us your bruises, so we can be sure," Armin again requested.

"Frankly, it never occurred to me that anyone might suspect me, or Mike, but then I know I'm not a Titan or a spy for them, nor is Mike. But I don't expect you to take my words at face value. Will the one love bite suffice, or do you need to see the ones on my legs too?" Erwin asked, as he began unbuttoning his shirt.

"As long as it's conclusive, the one will be fine, sir," Armin agreed coolly, though he blushed.

Erwin pulled aside the front of his shirt, exposing the most prominent love bite Jean had seen. It looked just as large and dark, the same size and shape as before. Jean exhaled in relief. "It hasn't changed."

"It looks the same," Mikasa agreed, and Armin and Eren nodded.

"Thank you sir. I'm certain you realize we didn't mean any disrespect or insubordination, but we had to be sure," Armin said, as he and Eren and Mikasa sheathed their swords.

"I'm actually glad you brought your concerns to my attention. You're right: a lack of trust could spell disaster at a crucial moment. I'll inform the others in the morning of your test, to assure them, in case any of them had similar concerns," Erwin said, with a remarkable amount of calm and understanding, considering what had just transpired.

"Thank you sir," Armin said sincerely. Then a devilish light lit his warm blue eyes and he smiled. "And congratulations."

Jean held his breath.

To his relief, Erwin smiled wryly back at Armin. "To you also."

Armin's eyes widened and then he blushed, his hand going to his throat and adjusting his collar, self-consciously covering his own love bite, which Jean belated realized was peeking out over the top of his shirt, as Armin bit his lip in embarrassment.

"Get back inside now."

"Yes sir," the three said, giving him a salute, and then they closed the door, leaving Jean alone in the hall with Erwin.

"Sorry sir," Jean muttered.

"As I said, it's fine. This once," Erwin said.

Jean swallowed and nodded. All in all, that had gone far better than he had expected, and not only because Erwin wasn't a Titan.


	11. Chapter 11 - A Hunting I Will Go

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites and follows. I truly appreciate them, and as those of you who have reviewed know, I always respond to your questions and comments via private message. **

**If you like this story, you might also like my new **_**D. Gray-Man/Karneval **_**Crossover story, **_**It's Not What You Think**_**, which is posted in the D. Gray-Man section – not as a crossover – because comparatively few people have seen **_**Karneval **_**(a fantastic series, which I highly recommend!). I'll be posting a new chapter of that story every Thursday as well, so please take a look and let me know what you think!**

_**It's Not What You Think:**_**  
D. Gray-Man/Karneval Crossover.** **The Black Order is devastated when Kanda, Allen, Lavi and Lenalee vanish days apart. Circus is left reeling when Gareki's search for Yogi and Nai ends in disaster. When Mana Walker's and Marian Cross's pasts collide with the children of Ship Two's futures, Chief Komui, and Captains Hirato and Tsukitachi stand to lose everything they hold dear.**

Chapter 11 – A Hunting I Will Go

Armin ate his breakfast without really tasting anything, though he was sure it was as delicious as it smelled. Someone had wanted to kill Mikasa, and nearly killed Sasha and Connie instead. It was the poisoning on base all over again: they'd thought they were safe, in no danger, and some stranger had attacked them. At least this time the immediate motive was clear: greed. But who wanted Mikasa dead that badly, and why? Was it because she was such a good Scout? Was there a poster out there with Levi's face on it, too? Or Eren's or Erwin's?

Everyone was eating with grim attention, rather than gusto, their wary eyes seeking danger in every stranger's face. After breakfast, Armin saw that Douglas tried to return Erwin's payment for their stay, but Erwin wouldn't accept it. He assured Douglas he didn't blame him for the attack against them, and that he shouldn't blame himself.

Douglas presented them with a half dozen bags, lunch for all of them for the road, that he and his wife had prepared for them, and insisted Erwin accept the gift. Erwin did so, shaking the man's hand, and hugging his wife, who was fluttering about agitatedly. Armin felt bad, that they'd somehow brought trouble to such nice people. He was glad they were leaving, so they wouldn't be in any danger.

They were all wearing their cloaks, and everyone but Levi and Connie donned their hoods before emerging outside, since Levi was using his cane and Connie his crutches, he, Eren, Mikasa and Sasha shuffling around in a pattern, as the Commander had instructed, since they were all nearly the same height, in case there were bowmen lying in wait, or snipers, in spite of the guards Erwin had posted in the yard. They'd be traveling hard and fast this morning, getting as far away from the inn as quickly as possible, cutting cross country, instead of sticking to the road. The pace would be hard on both Levi and Connie, but they'd reach Stohess before nightfall. Not that they'd be safe there, even inside the Garrison base: 5,000 silver was a fortune some soldiers would betray their oaths for.

The greatest danger lay closest to the inn, and once they reached Stohess. They didn't expect trouble in between, but Armin knew better than to be optimistic. Optimism got you killed.

0 0 0

Levi scanned every centimeter of the stable for danger as they entered. "Eren, I want you and Mikasa to switch horses, just in case they found out which one's hers. Chances are, if they shoot you, no matter where they hit you, you'll survive it."

"That's brilliant," Eren agreed wholeheartedly, without a hint of sarcasm, as desperate to protect Mikasa as he was.

They packed their supplies on their packhorses, after Levi paranoidly checked the packed lunches and was convinced they were harmless, unless they were poisoned. To be certain they weren't, he ate a few bites out of one of the sandwiches. That way, he'd be the only one at risk. Then they mounted up and rode out.

"We need to get off this fucking road," Levi snarled, as soon as they left the deceptively scenic and idyllic looking inn behind, and hit the road. "Armin, Eren and Sasha, I want you to keep your hoods over your heads, concealing your faces, like Mikasa. The rest of you, doff your hoods. This way, an assassin has four potential targets, while the rest of us don't lose our peripheral vision."

"No way! You're not endangering Sasha specifically just to protect Mikasa!" Connie snapped furiously.

"Don't be an idiot, Connie. Of course I will, Levi. I'd never let Mikasa get hurt, when I could help you protect her," Sasha assured him, as she pulled her hood further forwards.

"Fuck. I hate this. I hate that I'm the one endangering you, this time," Levi growled helplessly.

"You're not. Whoever distributed those posters is. I only wish Connie and I hadn't killed him, so you could have questioned him," Sasha apologized.

"Tch. Someone tries to knife you, you take them out. Don't ever apologize for protecting yourself. Don't ever hesitate, either. Someone else attacks us, we stop them, fucking kill them to do it, if that's what's safest. We'll find out who's behind this either way, without endangering anyone more than they have to be. So no hesitating, understand?" Levi challenged, looking her dead in the eye, to make sure she got it.

"I won't hesitate, Levi. I won't let them hurt me, or Mikasa, or Hange. I'm not just a thief, I'm a hunter, remember? I've killed men before last night: poachers and bandits. You don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself," she assured him, meeting his gaze unflinchingly, though he knew her eyes were far warmer than his own.

"Good. Because I'm not losing anyone from my Squad. Or Erwin and Hange," he said, as they began cutting across the open terrain. They could double back to the road later. For now, they needed to be unpredictable.

He'd been glad before that they hadn't taken the main road to the Stohess and the Capital, so Armin, Eren and Mikasa would be spared from seeing that copse of trees they'd camped in again, where they were attacked, and those now dead Olympian medics had tended to them, but now he wished they'd gone that way.

What the fuck was wrong with people? First the brats were attacked on their way to the Capital, then the Corps was poisoned, and now someone was targeting Mikasa? Didn't those fucking idiots realize the Corps was the only thing standing between them and the Titans? Well, the Garrison, too, but they could only do so much, from behind the safety of the Walls. Still, he had a hell of a lot more respect for them, since Pixis had given them the Olympians and Nachtwolven, even if it did mean he'd been immersed in fucking Greek ever since.

He'd never thought revealing that little sliver of his past to Pixis the night he broke into his office all those years ago would come back to bite him in the ass so painfully. Of course, Pixis didn't know the full truth. He had no idea why he'd been rifling through his office, what he'd hoped to find. Levi would have felt guilty about keeping the fact that they were related from the old man, except the fucker had hidden the fact he had another cousin he'd never known about: Hypatia.

Of course, if Levi had known about Hypatia, Kenny would have too, and then she likely would have been dead, or maybe just wished she was, if she had the misfortune of looking anything like his mother. Levi hadn't gotten a good look at her face under the cloak, when he'd fought her men in the Underground. Kenny had been obsessed with Melena, right up to and beyond the day he killed her. It didn't matter that just that once it hadn't been Kenny's own knife that had ended her: Kenny was still the reason his real father had kicked him and his mother out, the reason his mother had sought refuge in the Underground and been attacked and died there, and the reason Levi had been relentlessly tortured by that sadistic bastard, turning the idyllic first seven years of his life into a nightmarish hell for the next eleven.

"_I did it for you, Levi, because you're my son. The world is a hard, cruel place, and the Walls won't last forever. Now, when they come crashing down, you'll be one of the few who survive." _

"Shut the fuck up!" Levi snarled, trying to get that lying asshole's voice out of his head.

"Levi?" Erwin asked over the pounding hoofbeats.

Levi realized to his humiliation that he'd actually yelled the futile command aloud this time. "Nothing. Forget it," Levi yelled back, forcefully burying the impotent fury he always felt when thinking about the psychotic, sociopathic monster who'd raised him.

0 0 0

Armin was concerned when in the middle of the afternoon, as they were debating stopping for lunch, Sasha pointed out circling vultures ahead and to the right, apparently above the road they'd abandoned.

Erwin frowned, staring off into the distance, as if he might be able to see what lay through the trees just by willing it hard enough. "We won't risk Ackerman, but as Scouts, we can't just ignore circling carrion birds. It could be people or animals in distress, wounded but alive, or a trap to lure us or someone else, or possibly a trap for us that someone else sprang. Yeager, Arlert, Blouse, Kirstein, take a look. Kirstein, you're in charge. Use your judgment before you act, and report back," Erwin ordered.

"Yes sir!" they cried in unison. Armin could see Jean was surprised and pleased to be put in command. Armin darted a quick glance at Levi and saw his jaw clench in frustration and concern, knowing he was being left out of the scouting mission because of his injury.

"Sir! Request permission to join them!" Connie cried.

"No, Springer. I selected the Scouts I did and the number I did for a reason," Erwin replied coolly.

"Yes sir," Connie said tersely. He looked like he was barely containing his anger and frustration at watching his best friend and girlfriend leave without him.

Armin empathized with him, as he turned his horse to head out. He knew Mikasa was feeling just as powerless. But Connie was wounded and Mikasa a target. They would both be more liability than asset to them.

"Wait!" Hange called, rifling through the packs on one of her packhorses.

"No fucking dynamite," Levi snapped.

"No, but I thought it might be a good idea for them to have a silent long range weapon, since if it's people and not animals, they may have rifles, and although you do too, depending upon the situation, you might need a stealthier way of taking out some snipers," Hange said, as she produced one of the bows she'd brought, and two quivers of arrows, and handed them to Sasha.

"Thanks, Hange," Sasha said sincerely, caressing the bow. "It's beautiful. Excellent workmanship."

Hange grinned. "At least someone appreciates me."

"Quit dawdling and move out. Just don't get yourselves killed, shitty brats," Levi cautioned, his unique, signature version of wishing them luck.

"We'll be careful," Armin promised, and then they were off, heading for the vultures.

"Let me take point, when we get nearer. I can dismount and scout ahead. If there are tracks, I can maybe see how many men there might be, or what kind of animals," Sasha said confidently.

"Alright. But no heroics and no risks," Jean ordered.

"I'll be careful," she promised.

They kept heading cross country, instead of going onto the road from either above or below the trouble and moving down or up the road, hoping to surprise any potential attackers. When they were half a kilometer away, Sasha signaled to them and dismounted. She strapped on both quivers, one over each shoulder, carefully checking to make sure neither blocked the gas nozzles or would impede her maneuver gear in any other way, and then strung the bow and slung it onto her back, so she could either access it or ditch it quickly. Then she was off, slipping into the sparse trees on foot with remarkable skill and speed, vanishing in front of their eyes, in spite of the glaring white pants which should have betrayed her position.

"Please go with her. Keep her safe," Jean whispered to Armin's surprise, a quiet prayer to whichever God he worshipped. Armin thought Jean's parents were Christian, from the few things he'd mentioned about them, but he wasn't sure, and he knew at one point there had been numerous different sects of that single religion. He should ask Jean to teach him about his religion. He didn't have one of his own, and he was fascinated by the concept that there might be some powerful being, possibly even stronger than Eren, on their side. Also, he wanted to know everything about Jean, to be the best lover he could be.

0 0 0

Jean was surprised and relieved when his whispered urging to Marco appeared to work, as he felt Marco's chill presence leave. Marco had been notably absent while he was on guard duty last night in the hall with Commander Erwin, but he'd made his presence known again in the morning, to both his dismay and relief. Marco had been a quiet, bashful man in life, and he was even more shy as a spirit. Jean didn't know if Marco's ghost could actually do anything to protect Sasha, except maybe at least come back to him and warn him if Sasha was in trouble. If his ghost was real. Which he couldn't be, right?

Jean felt like an idiot, until unexpectedly, Acorn tossed his head and snorted, his withers shivering, as he watched Sasha's departing back vanish into the trees. Jean eyed his horse in speculation. Acorn was acting like someone who had the heebie jeebies, expressing his relief that the source of his apprehension had unexpectedly vanished. Children and animals were supposed to be more sensitive to ghosts than adults. Did that mean that Acorn actually sensed Marco too? The thought both reassured and alarmed him, because it could mean he wasn't actually crazy, and Marco's spirit was truly present. But that would conversely mean Marco's spirit really wasn't in heaven, where he belonged. But he needed to stop thinking about it and pay attention to his surroundings. "Keep an eye out for trouble. We can't assume we're safe back here," Jean voiced his concern aloud.

"Got it," Armin said.

Armin's steadfast support of his every action was comforting. It was like having Marco back, in a way, and the thought made him feel guilty. No one could replace Marco, not even Armin. But Marco had liked Armin too, while they were alive. _Shit, would Marco and Armin have eventually gotten together, because I was too stupid?_ The thought made his chest hurt. He wasn't sure if he was more jealous of Marco or of Armin, or just because he would have been alone, while they were happy.

"She'll be careful, Jean," Armin said, apparently seeing his mood and misinterpreting it.

"Yeah. She almost never gets caught," he agreed, the "almost" making him shiver. _What if whoever might be under those vultures is as good as Levi?_


	12. Chapter 12 - Disturbing Discovery

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
German translation: Sturm = Storm**

**Don't forget to check out my new story, **_**It's Not What You Think**_**, listed under D. Gray-Man. If you like these stories, you might also like my original published work, the four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, by Maria Albert, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 12 – Disturbing Discovery

It felt good, creeping through the trees, hunting again, something other than Titans. Except Sasha couldn't assume there weren't Titans. It wouldn't be the first time they'd surprised them by attacking within the Walls. The memory of Annie rampaging in Stohess made her shiver. She suddenly wished Hange had given her some of that dynamite after all. Except Annie was still trapped in her self-imposed crystal prison. So it would be either the Armored or Colossal Titan, unless it was some new one they hadn't met yet. Which was actually even scarier, though the Female Titan had been wicked fast, and terrifyingly intelligent and cruel.

_Pay attention,_ she scolded herself silently. Whoever or whatever lay up ahead was obviously deadly, regardless of whether it had anything to do with the Titans. She bent down and gathered up a double handful of dirt and began grinding it into her white pants. She needed better camouflage. She'd deal with Levi's disgust later. She was sure he'd rather she was careful and safe, than clean. When she was done coating her pants, she rubbed some of the dirt into her shirt and then the skin on her face, too, thankful for the dark green cloak, at least, which blended well with the trees. Mostly. She took it off and frowned at the glaring white portion of the Wings of Freedom insignia. If she ground dirt into it, it would never come clean. _But if I turn it inside out… Voila!_ She grinned at her ingenuity.

Feeling more confident and less exposed, she continued slipping silently through the trees, drawing ever nearer to the carrion birds.

The trees were thicker here, the intermittent smaller groves becoming an actual forest. She was relieved to hear the calls of birds and the rustling of other small animals. Silence always spelled danger. The animals, at least, felt safe, which meant that the danger might be long gone. Or merely something they didn't realize they should be afraid of.

Sasha bit her lip as she finally saw the road peeking out from between the tree branches, but then she frowned. The birds weren't circling over the road, they were circling past it, somewhere over the trees on the others side. That meant she'd have to break cover and cross the road, exposing herself for a precious few seconds.

She crept up to the very edge of the wooded area which bordered the dirt road, listening and watching for any hint of danger. _Nothing._ She waited, to be sure, and then she darted across the wide expanse of open packed dirt, heart hammering, diving into the relative safety of the opposite side breathlessly. She froze, listening for sounds of alarm, of search or pursuit, ready to use her maneuver gear to fly to safety but there was still nothing. She inhaled softly and slowly, until her heart steadied again, and then pressed deeper into the trees.

The trees on this side of the road thinned rapidly, until she was at the edge of an open field. She swallowed hard, as she saw the raised lump partway across the grassy expanse. From what she could see and smell, it was a dead horse and a dead man. There was blood all over both, and pecking birds, and a swarm of buzzing flies. Not a fresh kill, then. Some of the tension left, but not all of it.

She circled the field, staying within the trees, looking, listening, but whoever or whatever had killed the man and horse were apparently long gone. She crossed the field warily, keeping an eye and ear out anyway.

_Tracks._ Not of one horse, but of three. That man hadn't been alone. But why had his companions left him to rot, instead of bringing his body home, or burying him here? Even if they didn't have anything to dig with, the field was littered with good sized stones amongst the grass. They could have built a stone cairn over him, to protect him from the scavengers. Or were they wounded, or fleeing, barely escaping with their own lives?

Except from the tracks on the ground, there was no sign of large predators, or of bandits, of an ambush. _The three men were riding together._ _Did one or both of the others kill this man?_ _The tracks all appear to be the same age._ _Was his horse killed intentionally, or accidentally?_

Sasha reached the man's body, batting away the swarm of flies and froze, when she saw the familiar uniform_. Oh no!_ He was a soldier, a member of the Garrison. But what was he doing here? Had he been on leave with his friends? Or was he a messenger?

Fortunately he was face down, so he still could be identified. The back of his neck had been torn apart by scavengers. She turned him over and froze, staring at the dead man's bruised and bloodied face, twisted in an eternal rictus of pure terror and agony. _Titans! _

Heart hammering, she looked around wildly, at the trees, on the ground. The only time she'd ever seen that expression was on her dead comrades' faces, after facing Titans. But there were no broken branches or uprooted trees or huge footprints and there weren't any bites taken out of the body. Although, the ground in a three meter swath directly around the bodies was suspiciously torn up, more than a thrashing, dying horse could account for. _Someone covering up one or more Titans' footprints? Titan shifters? _

Sasha shuddered and forced her gaze back down to the man's face. There had been something familiar about it… "I know you. You were on base," she said, in sudden stunned realization. She didn't know who he was, or why he'd been there, but she'd seen him there two days ago. His jacket and shirt were sliced up and bloody. He looked like he'd been in a fight. She shuddered, staring at the bloody stumps of his missing fingers. No, like he was tortured.

She searched him and his horse for messages, papers, but there was nothing. It was impossible to tell what had killed his horse, from the damage the scavengers had already done. "The Commander would know why you were on base. I need to report back to the others."

With a final look around, to make sure she hadn't missed anything important, she put him face down again, and then used her cloak to cover his head and back, to protect as much of the body as possible from the vultures and other animals while she was gone. Then she headed back, forcing herself to go quickly and quietly, the way she came, instead of tearing wildly through the trees with her maneuver gear, where anyone could hear the whir of the cables and the loud thuds of the grappling hooks, and smell the distinctive sharp bite of the gas.

Fortunately, she made it back to Jean, Armin and Eren without incident.

"Sasha! Shit, what happened, how many of them were there?" Jean asked in alarm.

"Just one, and he was dead… oh. The dirt was just me, I wasn't in a fight or anything," she explained, belatedly realizing her filthy uniform and missing cloak were the cause of his concern.

"A dead man?" Eren asked.

"A Garrison soldier. And his horse. We need to report back. He was on base, I saw him, two days ago. The Commander might know…"

"Randall? Randall's dead?" Armin asked in alarm and dismay.

"I don't know his name, but he had brown hair, and blue eyes, he was close to Erwin's height, and probably close to his age too," Sasha described.

"That's Randall. What happened? How did he die?" Armin asked, pain and shock in his voice.

"I'm sorry Armin. I didn't know you knew him. There were two other riders with him, before he was killed. I saw their horses' tracks, and their footprints, but no other signs of them. They were wearing boots, and they both had pretty big feet, and the horses were shod. That's all I could tell about them. Except I think they might have been Titan shifters, from the look of terror on Randall's face. Unless it was only from the pain, from the way they tortured him and knowing he'd die. But that expression… and the ground all around him was torn up, like maybe someone was hiding Titan footprints," she reported grimly.

"He was _tortured_? But why… oh no! The Aqueduct map, the report! The map was in Greek. They would have needed a translation to understand the citations on it. They might have thought there was mention of the maintenance tunnels, the Gates. Did you search Randall and his horse for papers? Did you find any?" Armin asked, panic in his voice.

"I looked, but there wasn't anything. Although if he knew he was in danger of being caught, if they were following him or something and he suspected them, and had something important on him, maybe he hid it before they could find it? Maybe that's why they tortured him? We should go back and check together. I hadn't known for sure before there was anything to find. It looks like he was killed sometime yesterday, from the state of the body, so it should be safe enough. I guess I should have used my gear to come back, but I didn't want to be too noisy, in case they were still in the area," she apologized

"You did exactly right," Jean told her. "You got back safely and made your report. But we'll go on horseback. I'm sure the Commander and Captain are probably already getting anxious. We were freaking out ourselves, when it took you longer than we expected. We were just about ready to set out after you," Jean admitted.

"Sorry. I was just being careful. I didn't mean to worry you," Sasha apologized.

"I'm glad. But I thought I might have sent you to your death. I don't know how the Commander and Captain can do it, ordering people out like that, knowing they might die," Jean said.

"I don't envy them that," Eren said solemnly, his concerned eyes on Armin.

Armin looked really upset. Sasha wished she'd known he knew the soldier, Randall. She would have tried to break the news of his death to him easier, though it was pretty horrible regardless.

They rode together towards the bodies, still keeping a wary eye out for trouble. "I wish I had that dynamite now. If it really is Titan shifters who did this… Especially if it's the Armored and Colossal. I don't think swords will work against either of them. Although there's no real proof it was anything more than two men," Sasha admitted.

"Do you think whoever it was knew they had those papers, and that that's why Randall was killed, or was taking them just a crime of opportunity?" Eren asked.

"I don't know. But Levi would say there's no such thing as coincidence," Armin said grimly.

They reached the kill site, approaching from the side, directed by Sasha, so they wouldn't obliterate the tracks of the other two horses, or the men, and then dismounting and approaching on foot. Armin and Eren went right to the body, but Jean studied the footprints and hoofprints. Because of that, Sasha was the only one who saw Jean pale and stare in horror at the tracks, like he was looking at Titan footprints.

"Jean, what is it? What's wrong?" Sasha asked in alarm, scanning the tracks intently. What had she missed that Jean saw?

"You're sure they're gone? That it was yesterday?" Jean asked, panic and fear and anger in his voice, as he scanned the trees around them, as he bladed his swords.

"I'm sure. Whoever it was is long gone," Sasha assured him, even as she bladed her own weapons. "What do you see?"

"I can't tell you here. We need to examine the bodies and look for those documents, and I don't want what I know to influence you in any way. From what Armin said, those papers were important. Our lives and our mission are at risk," Jean said, his voice cracked and hoarse. Whatever he'd seen had shaken him up badly. "I'll stand watch. You three look for those papers," he ordered.

Sasha obediently scanned the ground around the kill site, but there were no other tracks either leaving or approaching the area, save for the two horses departing back into the trees, towards the road. She started to follow them back to the road, to be sure, but Jean called her sharply back. She hadn't heard him sound so frightened since Trost.

Eren and Armin were thorough in their search, though Jean's anxiety had them all on edge. They even used their horses to pull aside the dead horse, to check to make sure the missing documents weren't under his body. But they finished their search, without finding any papers.

"Alright Jean. Now what did you see? What do you know?" Armin challenged.

"Not here. We need to get back to the Commander. They're probably already worried about us," Jean ordered.

"But what about Randall?" Armin asked.

"I'm sorry, Armin, but we need to leave him here. The Captain and Commander will probably want to examine everything further, and even if they don't, I'm sorry, but we can't use that much time. We need to move quickly," Jean apologized.

They all remounted, and as soon as they were clear of the trees, and on the road, instead of crossing it and going back the way they had come, Jean urged Acorn to a gallop, down the road, towards the others. Sasha spurred Butterscotch on as well, and she could hear the thundering sound of Armin's and Eren's mounts keeping pace behind her.

After a while, Jean slowed his horse, and he entered the trees, Sasha and the others right behind him. She was impressed by how well he'd estimated the distance on the road. They ended up finding the others with ease, their horses walking just long enough that they weren't winded and wouldn't suffer from the gallop.

"What the fuck took you so long? Why did you come back this way? Why are your horses lathered? Where's Sasha's cloak and why does she look like she rolled around in the dirt?" Levi snapped.

"It was Randall, and his horse. He was dead, tortured and murdered. It was two people on horseback, and unless he hid them somehow, they took the map of the Aqueducts and the geologist's report," Armin reported breathlessly.

"Fuck! Shit! Damn it!" Levi fumed. "How the fuck did only two men take out a fucking Special Forces soldier? Was he ambushed?"

"No. He was riding with the men who killed him, for at least part of the way. Or they came in after him and he might have been cautious at first, but he trusted them to get close enough, because they were fucking Scouts. Not just wearing Scout uniforms, but fucking Scouts. It was Reiner and Bertolt," Jean reported bitterly, stunning Sasha.

"What? What the hell do you mean it was Reiner and Bertolt? How the hell could you possibly know that?" Eren shrilled, as Armin paled.

"Oh God. This is my fault. I should have said something. Now Randall's dead and our mission is endangered," Armin whispered.

Jean turned on him, looking shocked and furious. "You knew? You fucking knew it was them, that they were the Titan spies before this and didn't say anything?" he accused furiously.

"Armin, look at me. Did you really know or did you just suspect them? **When** did you know?"Mikasa demanded.

Armin bit his lip. "Last night. I didn't know for sure, but that was when I realized… I sort of knew a long time before that, but I just… I didn't let myself see. I couldn't admit it was true." His eyes welled with tears. "How could it be them? After everything, how could they have betrayed humanity like that, us all like that? Why?"

"We need to know what you know or suspect. Kirstein, you first. The others obviously didn't see what you saw. I want your full report, now," Erwin demanded.

Jean nodded. "Sasha needs to report first though. I sent her in to scout for us."

"What the hell do you mean? You cowardly fucker, you sent Sasha in alone?" Connie snapped, wheeling his horse around, looking ready to leap off it and onto him.

"I volunteered! I wanted to go! I knew I would be more safe on my own," Sasha snapped at Connie. Then she coolly and succinctly reported everything she did, everything she found, including her gut feeling it could have been a Titan shifter that killed him.

Then Jean spoke, first reporting everything the four of them already knew, but then continuing. "I was staring at the horse tracks, and the boot tracks, trying to see whether they'd been riding with Randall, or had come up to him later, and surprised him, or maybe carried him there already dead and then killed his horse, trying to see if it looked like one horse's track were deeper, like he had a double burden, and that's when I saw it. I recognized Valkyrie's hoofprints, Reiner's mount. And the size of the boot prints, they were both big, but one set more narrow, those could easily have been Reiner's and Bertolt's. And from the spacing and size of the prints, the other horse could have been Sturm. But there was no mistaking Valkyrie's prints. It was either Reiner, or someone riding his horse, and the odds of that, and them going after Randall? It makes more sense it was Reiner."

"How can you be so certain it was that particular horse, Valkyrie? Heracles is big too." Levi didn't sound as if he doubted him, but more as if he was gathering the final piece of evidence before tightening the noose around a known criminal's neck.

"Yes, sir. But Valkyrie's hoofprints are unmistakable. She has a distinctive distortion of the hoofwall on her right hind foot. Her shoe was specially designed to compensate for it. I'd know her hoofprints anywhere," Jean said confidently.

"How the hell do you know that?" Eren asked.

Jean sighed. "Because my dad's a farrier," Jean reluctantly explained.

"What does your dad piloting a boat have anything to do with hoofprints?" Eren asked.

Jean looked up, apparently ready to snap at him, until he saw Eren was genuinely perplexed, instead of taunting him. "Not a ferryman, idiot, a farrier. He shoes horses and trims their hooves," Jean explained with a sigh.

Sasha could see Jean was waiting for the inevitable comment. She suspected Jean had dreaded Eren finding out what his father did for a living for over three years now, ever since Eren had first called him horseface.

"Wow, and you can tell which horse is which just by looking at their tracks? That's amazing!" Eren said, sounding sincere.

Jean looked completely stunned. "Uh… yeah, when there's something unusual about the shape. It's there, clear as day."

"Now, Armin, what do you know about this?" Levi asked, his voice bitingly cold. "How long have you known Braun and Hoover were the Titan spies, and why didn't you say anything before now? We know you once had feelings for Annie Leonhart, but we concluded you were being tricked and used, like the rest of the 104th, when you didn't let them get in the way of doing your duty. But was that all a ruse, so we wouldn't suspect you? Did you merely abandon Leonhart, once she was exposed? Have you secretly been a Titan sympathizer all this time?" The depth of fury and betrayal in Levi's voice was terrifying. Sasha had to fight to keep from positioning her horse between them, to protect Armin.

Armin's eyes widened in horror. "No! Of course not! You can't really think I am, can you? It was only last night, after we confronted Erwin to make sure he wasn't a Titan that I started putting it all together. But I still wasn't sure this morning or I'd have told you, I swear! And I didn't have any evidence against Bertolt, only about Reiner. But I didn't want to believe it was true. I was just as stupid as Eren was about Annie, and now Randall's dead. Although I don't know how I could have stopped that. We didn't know he'd taken this road, or where he was on it, and… and it looked like he was killed yesterday."

He turned to Jean, his eyes frantic, but also bright with tears. "You knew too, Jean. You saw the same evidence I did, but you didn't put it together either. I guess even now you don't even realize what you saw. But you were with me when it happened, when the Female Titan attacked you and me and Reiner, two missions ago.

"Remember how we'd been talking about Eren's position, and I told you it sounded like each of us had been given a different map of the formation, showing Eren in alternate locations? But that I thought he must be on the right flank, and my reasons for that, but that the Female Titan obviously didn't realize it?

"Remember how I tried to trick her into thinking she'd accidentally stepped on Eren? Then, when she attacked me, you tried to save me, and Reiner looked like he was protecting me too. But then she grabbed him and we were sure he'd been squeezed to death. But somehow he came flying out of her hand, cutting her fingers?

"Do you remember the way she was staring at her steaming hand? At the time, I thought she was stunned her fingers had been sliced, or her palm. But then she suddenly ran off, heading directly for Eren's position. Then Reiner said something incredibly stupid and arrogant, that she was running away, that we'd scared her off. I couldn't believe he'd think that, when it was so obvious she was heading for Eren, although I had no idea how she'd realized where he was.

"Then remember the way Reiner glared at me? At the time, I chocked it up to him realizing how much of an idiot he'd been, I thought he was just angry I'd made him look bad. Even then, deep in the back of my mind, I think I must have realized the truth, but I refused to believe it.

"Reiner has always been like a big brother to us, all of us, but especially me, really protective. I didn't want to believe he could be the spy. But you saw too, Jean. There was no way he could have worked up the strength or speed to break free of her grip like that, enough to be able to cut her hand. Not unless she purposefully loosened her grip and let him.

"While he was in her hand, he must have used his knife, and carved Eren's location into her palm. That's why Reiner got away. She let him go, because he was on her side all along, working with him, and she needed to see what he wrote. That's why she stopped trying to kill us and ran. Because we weren't important anymore. She knew where to go to find Eren, because I was stupid enough to tell Reiner.

"Reiner's one of the spies. And with how close Bertolt is to him, there's no way Bertolt doesn't know he is. And Reiner has blond hair, like the Armored Titan, and Bertolt's always sweating, like he's nervous or scared all the time, or maybe just hot, you know, like the Titans are, and he's tall, like the Colossal Titan, and… you saw the hoofprints. It was two horses, and two men. They were together. It's them. It has to be," Armin concluded, his voice thick with sorrow, anger, hurt and betrayal.

"But why would they do it?" Jean argued, as confused as Sasha was by their motives. "The Titans destroyed their village, right? Or was that a lie? Shit, did they just pretend to come from there, some village they knew was destroyed, with no survivors to call them liars? But even if that's true, why destroy the Wall and then enlist and help us fight? It wasn't just to trick us, it couldn't have been. Not when they helped us train and then saved us all those other times. If they were our enemy, if they were evil like that, why would they do that?"

"I don't know," Armin admitted. "Maybe they helped us in little ways, so we wouldn't suspect them. Or maybe they really wanted to help us, because they're being forced to do what they're doing, somehow, threatened into helping us, or tricked. Maybe in reality, their friends and neighbors really were attacked by the Titans, but they weren't killed. Maybe the Titans are holding their friends and neighbors hostage and will eat them or somehow turn them into Titans too if they don't cooperate.

"Or maybe they've just been playing with us. Maybe they're as sick and twisted and cruel as Annie. Maybe they revel in deceiving us as much as they do in killing. I honestly have no idea. I don't pretend to understand. Nothing makes sense to me anymore, not since I first realized Eren was still alive and saw his arm and leg had grown back, that he'd somehow turned into a Titan. But I'm certain Reiner's a Titan spy, and more than likely the Armored Titan," Armin said with conviction.

"We'll capture him and test him to be sure. But I'm going to do more than knock out that fucker's tooth, the next time I see him," Levi promised viciously. "We can't let on that we're suspicious of them. We need to take them down the same way Dok took down Jean and Sasha and Connie. They weren't there to see that, so they won't expect it."

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing I brought those little toys of Dok's along with me. I knew they'd come in handy somehow. You never know when you'll need some happy-fun-time restraints," Hange said, with a maniacal grin of delight.

"We'll need to ride fast and hard, from here on out, as quickly as the packhorses will allow. We need to get to those tunnels before they do." Erwin ordered. "They already have far too great a head start on us."

"But they won't know where the Gates are, or the tunnels, not exactly," Armin argued bravely. "They weren't on the map. And the Aqueducts themselves, the map showed the layout to scale, but without a reference point, it might take a long time for them to find them. They can't just enter the Underground and start smashing in every wall they find. They'd bring the whole Capital crashing down onto their heads."

"The little shit's right," Levi agreed. "Which mean's Armin, Eren, Mikasa and I could be their next target. Only they don't know we're coming. So either they've headed back to base, which means Stephanos, Zacharius and the others are in danger, or they've gone on ahead, and they're going to go into the Underground and start threatening and torturing people, until they find someone who knows about those damned tunnels."

"Hypatia. The Library," Armin said, horrified.

"Everyone, brat. The kids and mothers and old people. Everyone. We've seen those fuckers don't care who and how many they kill. It's going to be a fucking bloodbath," Levi pronounced grimly.

"Which means our mission objectives have changed," Erwin stated. "We forget about Schiffer for now. Hopefully the Garrison has caught him and is already interrogating him. Our priority now is stopping Braun and Hoover, if we find them, but most importantly, using that tunnel before they can destroy it, to reach Shiganshina and Yeager's basement."


	13. Chapter 13 - The Price of Trust

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 13 – The Price of Trust

Levi insisted on inspecting the kill site himself, before they proceeded on to the Capital. Because no one else had seen what Jean did, and in spite of his gut feelings, he could no longer afford to trust the man. He couldn't trust anyone, except for Erwin, Hange, Armin, Eren and Mikasa, because they'd all saved him at one time or another, and if any single man was the biggest threat to the Titans, it was him. Of course, seeing the distinctive hoofprints wouldn't prove anything, until they inspected Valkyrie's right hind hoof and matched the print to it.

_Life Lesson 9: If you don't trust anyone, you can never be betrayed._ If he'd followed his own damned rules, he never would have been knifed in his own bed. But the corollary to that was that, if he hadn't trusted Isabel and Furlan, he'd have been eaten alive in that basement trap that fucker's brother had set. Hell, he probably would have died long before that, the time he got so sick he couldn't even move, and Furlan had nursed him back to health. And that was only the start of his relationships, his dependence on others for his survival, his sanity. _Tch._ What a complete fucking hypocrite he was. Everyone here but Connie was his friend, and even that little shit had already at least marginally worked his way under his emotional armor, by saving Sasha.

But what if Jean or Connie was a spy, Titan shifter or not? Or worse, Sasha? More than anyone here, save for Erwin, she had the power to hurt him, and the worst part of it was, she knew it, because he'd told her too damned much. He'd told her about Isabel.

"Don't, Levi. I see that look in your eyes. I haven't seen it in years, and I'd hoped to never see it again. Don't regress to being who you were, when I first met you," Erwin urged softly enough so the others wouldn't hear, as their horses picked their way through the trees at a slower pace now they were off the road and nearing their goal, led by Jean and Sasha.

"Because I was a rabid animal, a fucking piece of gutter filth?" Levi snarled.

Erwin recoiled in surprise. "No. Because you thought you had to become less than what you are to survive in that hell. Don't dishonor Isabel and Furlan's memories by losing what they would have died to protect. Don't let these inhuman bastards take your humanity from you, not again, not when you fought so long and hard to reclaim it."

"Don't you dare fucking speak their names, not when you're as responsible for killing them as I am! Especially since you're the one to talk, about me not sacrificing my humanity. You're the most fucking soulless, heartless, callous bastard I've ever met," Levi snapped, instinctively lashing out in response to Erwin's unprovoked and unexpected attack. _How dare Erwin try to use Isabel and Furlan against me?_

Erwin stiffened. "Actually, I would have thought that dubious honor would go to Kenny Ackerman," he replied coldly and viciously.

"Erwin, Levi," Hange interrupted anxiously, but Levi ignored her.

"Tch. Nice try, but not even close. You have to hit a lot harder, deeper and bloodier than that if you want to walk in that fucker's shoes. Kenny is a demon in human skin, but at least he never pretended to be anything else. You're the one claiming to be Humanity's Savior, like you're the fucking chosen right hand of God. I've got news for you, you conceited prick: you're not a fucking Archangel, or the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, if you believe in that ridiculous shit. Of course, you've always acted like you think this is the End of Days, fucking Armageddon."

Achilles snorted angrily as Mikasa interposed her mount between the two of them. "This isn't the time or place for you two to fight, not when Titan shifters could still be out here, ready to ambush us. We all need to keep alert, and that includes listening. Once we're safely in the Capital, you can argue religion or any other pointless, meaningless topic all you want until you're both blue in the face, for all I care. But first, you're going to tell me who Kenny Ackerman is, Levi."

"You're right. We'll fight later. But you don't need to know about Kenny, Mikasa. He's got nothing to do with you," Levi said, hoping it was true. Because ever since he'd met Mikasa, he'd wondered whether there was a connection, and ever since she'd saved him, and had come to mean so much to him, he'd dreaded their might be.

"We'll discuss it later," Mikasa insisted, as she resumed her position in their formation.

_Shit._ He hadn't wanted her to ever hear that bastard's name, let alone know all the dark facts about him. That was Erwin's fault too. He glared at the man.

"I'm sorry," Erwin apologized unexpectedly, his voice quieter again, so the others could still hear potential danger coming. "Not for caring about you enough to say what I did, but for allowing you to hurt me enough that I'd mention that monster Kenny Ackerman where Mikasa could hear," he qualified. "You can still trust us, Levi. Not everyone, but the ten of us here with you at least. We're not your enemies. I hope you can believe that."

_I hurt Erwin?_ It took a lot to get through that armor of his. Very few people held that kind of power. As victories went, it was a hollow one. He hadn't wanted to hurt him. _Wait. He said 'us', not 'them'. Does Erwin think I don't trust him anymore? _The last time he hadn't trusted Erwin, his two best friends, his only true family, had died. He couldn't lose Armin or Sasha or Mikasa or Hange. He couldn't lose anyone that important again. He didn't even want to think about ever losing Erwin. With Isabel and Furlan gone, there was no fucking point to any of it without Erwin.

"I never said I didn't trust you," Levi muttered. "Don't think my eyes are the window to my soul, Erwin. I'm not you. There's nothing to see but darkness. Anyone who looks into my eyes only sees their own fear reflected back at them."

"That's not what I see," Erwin argued, his voice surprisingly gentle.

"What do you see?" Levi asked, knowing he was an idiot for asking, dreading the answer, but needing to hear it. Erwin wouldn't see reflected fear, staring into the abyss of his eyes. He alone could possibly see the actual twisted depths of his soul.

"Hope. Love. The strength I need to keep going, when everyone else around me hates me, for killing the people they love," Erwin admitted, his words all the more shocking for the simple, quietly sincere honesty of them.

_That's how he sees me? _"Tch. You're fucking insane," Levi claimed, even as Erwin's words warmed him.

Erwin didn't argue the point, as they entered the field, tensing at the sight and smell of death.

Levi dismounted and inspected the tracks carefully. Knowing what to look for, it was easy to see the distinctive distorted right hind hoofprint leading up to the bodies and then away again.

"We need to bring Randall's body back with us," Armin entreated. "He was like family to Commander Pixis. He might have had family, too. We need to let them burn him on a pyre. Just this once, we need to bring a body back."

Levi could see Erwin weigh the pros and cons in a single heartbeat, the weight and smell of the body against the gratitude of Pixis. "Of course," he said, as Levi had expected.

They inspected the bodies, the ground and the surrounding trees carefully, all around the prints, heading in both directions, but there was no sign of the missing documents. Then they shifted the packs off one of the packhorses and loaded the body onto it instead, after wrapping it in Sasha's cloak and two of their blankets. As soon as the grizzly burden was secure, they headed back to the road, pressing on towards Stohess.

Hours later, when they finally reached the outer Gate of Stohess without encountering Braun or Hoover or bounty hunters after Mikasa, Levi breathed a guarded sigh of relief, even knowing that the danger to Mikasa, and possibly the rest of them, was even greater once they were within Stohess. Though he loved the open land and clear sky over the forests and fields between the Walls, and despised the huddled masses of people who flocked to the crowded towns and cities, even after all these years aboveground he felt far more at ease within the confines of those dirty cities he detested.

"Commander Erwin, Squad Leader Hange and Captain Levi and his Special Operations Squad requesting entrance to Stohess," Erwin stated the appropriate formality by rote.

"Commander. We weren't expecting to see more members of the Survey Corps here so soon. What is your business in Stohess?" the highest ranking sentry, a Garrison Gate Lieutenant unexpectedly challenged, his remarkably hostile and suspicious tone causing Levi to tense back up immediately.

It sounded like Braun and Hoover had definitely come, fortunately in their human form, from the lack of visible damage in the entryway to the City. But had they caused some sort of trouble deeper in the City?

"We're on a training mission, _Lieutenant,_ but we also have business with Commander Pixis," Erwin replied coolly, stressing the man's lower rank. "Which other Scouts have entered the City recently, and have there been any issues involving them?" Erwin fired back.

"We'll answer your questions after you have your men dismount, lower their hoods, and keep their hands where we can see them, _sir_," the man ordered, stressing the last word venomously instead of respectfully, in a way that had Levi wanting to teach the man some manners with his feet.

"Why?" Erwin demanded coldly, in a tone that brooked no argument, and normally had soldiers even from the other branches leaping to obey, as Levi and the core of their formation shifted their horses to tighten their ranks around Mikasa.

"We have orders to detain one of your men," the man answered with obvious reluctant deference, his hands fisted, as if he were holding onto his own temper by a thread.

"Which one?" Erwin asked suspiciously.

Levi silently cursed. _Are those fuckers after Mikasa or Eren?_

"If I had my way it would be every single one of you murdering bastards, and we'd be doing more than sending you to the Military Police," the man snapped back.

"What the fuck is your problem? Why are you so eager to toss one of us to those dogs?" Levi snarled, his own tenuous control fraying. There was no way he'd let the Military Police lay a hand on any of them again, without him cutting off that offending hand. He was through playing nice with those assholes. Let Erwin talk them away. Next time, he was spilling blood.

"Because my best friend lost his home and his leg because of you arrogant assholes, and is down on his remaining knee every morning thanking the God he never used to believe in because he didn't lose his family too, because it was a fucking miracle any of them are still alive!" the man roared, lunging toward Levi, as his men fought to restrain him.

"It took us three days to dig them out of what was left of their block, and they were truly lucky! Because 100 other men, 94 women and 62 children are dead because of you Scouts! 406 others were injured, 98 of them permanently maimed, and hundreds of others lost their homes and livelihoods, because you brought two fucking Titans into the heart of our City and turned it into a battleground! Then you have the unmitigated gall to parade around pretending to be Humanity's Saviors, you murdering bastards!" he yelled, red-faced and shaking, some of the men holding him trying to calm him, while others glared at them.

_Fuck._ Levi felt rather than saw Erwin go rigid beside him. It wasn't something Erwin showed, ever, the way his men's deaths or civilian deaths battered his abused but hardened psyche and soul. "I am fully aware of the unforgiveable casualties this City and its people suffered. The entire Corps, and I, personally, as its Commander, was put on trial at a Military Tribunal and acquitted of culpability in those deaths, injuries and the accompanying property damage. I know it doesn't matter to the dead, or to those who live on suffering after their passing, but Annie Leonhart was a member of the vaunted Military Police, not the denigrated Survey Corps," Erwin said stiffly.

"I only ask that you consider that, had it not been for Eren Yeager, the Titan shifter within our ranks, the entire City could have easily been destroyed, instead of only a small portion of it. Every citizen and soldier within these walls could have died, because unlike the other fifteen meter tall flesh eating monsters the Corps fights and destroys on a regular basis, this one was impervious to all our attacks. You witnessed it. Some of those men who died were the Garrison soldiers who fought right alongside us, trying to take that traitorous, murdering monster down. Even now, she lies safely encased in her crystal cocoon.

"Although she well might not for long. Because we now have something which we believe could be effective in breaking that seemingly indestructible protective shell, which will allow us access to her, so that we can wake her and interrogate her, and finally learn her motives and maybe even those of others for turning on humanity and siding with the Titans against us. After we're finished discovering everything we can, she can be brought to whatever justice you feel she deserves for all the carnage she's caused, although we're just as entitled to vengeance against her."

The dynamite. Erwin was going to use the dynamite on her, or maybe even nitroglycerin. If it was powerful enough to destroy Hange's lab, and to reduce the stone door in the Gate to rubble, it likely would be capable of shattering that formerly impenetrable crystal prison. Whether or not Leonhart would survive them blowing big bloody chunks out of her long enough to be questioned remained to be seen.

Levi saw Eren stiffen, obviously coming to the same conclusion he had, but less than pleased by the prospect. Armin made no reaction that he could see, but he couldn't see either of their faces beneath the hoods.

"Fine. The rest of you can enter the City and go to the Garrison to meet with Pixis. But if she's with you, Mikasa Ackerman is under arrest, and I'll be damned if I let that Titan shifter Eren Yeager within our Wall ever again," the Lieutenant snarled, visibly reining in his temper, straightening stiffly, no longer straining against his men.

"What are the charges against Scout Ackerman?" Erwin asked, for the time being not mentioning Eren, or admitting either was with them.

"For now she's being arrested as a material witness, to be brought in for questioning in a series of distinctive, linked murders, and to be kept in protective custody," the Lieutenant grudgingly admitted, yanking away from his men's concerned hands, and straightening his uniform.

"I am aware of only two cases of multiple human deaths where Scout Ackerman was a witness, once when she was a child, and once recently, but both were self defense," Erwin fished.

Levi knew he was speaking of her participation in the deaths of her kidnappers and parents' murderers, and of those men who attacked her, Armin and Eren in the grove, on their way to the Capital.

"She's wanted for questioning in the Numbers Slayings, the brutal unsolved serial killings of 92 Military Police and 26 civilians nearly two decades ago, and the recent inexplicable resurgence of identical killings within this past week, a spate of nine new murders," the Lieutenant claimed, his words turning Levi's blood to ice.

_Shit. Fuck. I knew it. It isn't just a coincidence their last names are both Ackerman._ There was a link, just as he'd dreaded. Kenny had found out about Mikasa, and now he wanted her. Last he'd heard, that bastard was in the Military Police, one of the highest ranking officers under Dok's command. No way in hell was he letting any of those MP bastards near Mikasa, especially not Kenny.

"If Scout Ackerman needs to be questioned, we're the ones who will be doing it. If she requires protective custody, we're the ones who will provide it. The Corps takes care of its own," Erwin stated firmly, speaking Levi's own desperate needs aloud. "All of us need to be allowed inside Stohess, and we need to see Commander Pixis immediately," Erwin ordered.

"You're forgetting, Commander, there are 30,000 Garrison soldiers, thousands of whom are within this City, while I count only 11 of you here. Reveal your faces, now, or we'll arrest the lot of you, and kill anyone who resists."

"You'll be the first to die, you fucker," Levi snarled, his 'kill or be killed' survival instinct triggered, the need to protect Mikasa from Kenny overriding every rational thought.

To his frustration, Mikasa flung back her hood. "I won't allow anyone to die because of me. I'm Mikasa Ackerman."

"Erwin, you can't! Even without the bounty on her head, if you let the Military Police have her, we'll never see her again," Levi said with sick certainty, as he refined his plan of attack against the Garrison soldiers around them, compensating for every shift in position when Mikasa revealed herself, to ensure he'd cause the maximum amount of damage in the minimum amount of time without killing any of the fuckers, if he could help it. He didn't give a shit that it would make him a wanted man. He'd been a hunted fugitive for years, and had only been caught once in all that time. The fact that he'd been Erwin's captive ever since was only because he'd allowed it. He'd kill anyone else who touched him or Mikasa. Kenny was not getting his filthy hands on either of them, ever, even if he had to hang for it.

Levi tensed at the sound of maneuver gear overhead, as two dozen figures descended down the Wall onto their position, cursing the distraction which had left them all vulnerable. _Ambush!_

"Stand down everyone! Levi!" Erwin commanded, clamping his left hand firmly down onto Levi's shoulder, preempting his attack, only a moment before he too recognized the figures descending upon them.

"Sorry to alarm you all," Pixis's voice called out from above, later than had been wise. "When I saw our illustrious guests, I couldn't help but come down to issue them a personal welcome. I hope you don't mind, Lieutenant Bremen, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to countermand Commander Dok's orders. From what I saw, they appear to be at the heart of this little tiff. I am, after all, the Commander of the Garrison, of which you are an esteemed part. Though Commander Dok and I are of equal rank, my position as your superior certainly trumps the orders of one of the Military Police, wouldn't you say?"

Levi recognized every single man and woman with Pixis. Without exception, they were soldiers from his Special Forces, ones he'd seen during their brief stop at the Garrison 3 base, when he was last in the Capital, after the brats had rescued him.

"It's good to see you again, Commander Erwin, Captain Levi, Scouts," Pixis said vaguely, mentioning no other names, though Levi saw his sharp eyes recognize Armin and Eren even with their hoods. "Please accompany us inside, so we can offer you the hospitality of borrowing some of our uniform jackets and cold weather cloaks, to wear in lieu of your own. We don't want to attract any undue attention inside the Wall, after all. Folks around here are a mite skittish, with recent events."

"Thank you, sir. Your hospitality is appreciated. We have a number of issues we need to discuss with you, before proceeding with our training exercises," Erwin said, smoothly accepting Pixis's invitation.

"Excellent! Please return to your posts, everyone. We'll see these men reach our base safely, hopefully without any attempted interference from the Military Police. In fact, it would be best that the MPs not become aware of their visit at all," Pixis said, looking pointedly at Bremen.

"Yes sir," the man said tersely, obviously fuming and frustrated, but hopefully unwilling to commit insubordination against a direct order from Commander Pixis himself.

As they headed through the Gate, Pixis sighed, rubbing his thigh. "Captain Levi, you seem to bring out the dramatic flair in me. This is the second time you've forced my hand into a rather showy arrival. I might wear these straps daily, but I don't often find the need to use them. This old skin of mine bruises quite easily, I'm afraid."

"Tch. You can't blame that on me. You've always been a drama queen, Old Man. It's in the Pixis blood," Levi scoffed. _Your blood, Hypatia's blood, Melena's blood, my blood._ "The trick's always been keeping that blood in your body, hasn't it?" he added bitterly.

The men around Pixis stiffened, two of them interposing themselves between Pixis and Levi's horse, even as Pixis held out his hands placatingly. "Stand down, everyone. That wasn't meant as a threat."

Erwin simultaneously chimed in, "He wasn't threatening your Commander."

"Tch. Like I'd ever warn him if I planned to hurt him. He's about as helpless and harmless as Armin here," Levi taunted, watching closely. Armin's hood had slipped back enough to reveal his face, and he was watching them, no doubt listening intently. Levi was pleased to see after an initial quick glance at Armin, more than a few eyes lingered, and not because the deceptively innocent looking little shit was hot as fuck, either.

Pixis led them to a door set in the Stohess side of the Wall. "Four of you stay and guard their horses. Eight of you get mounts for us. The rest of you come with me. I want as few people as possible seeing Ackerman and Yeager."

They entered the Garrison 11 base en masse, and headed for the Quartermaster's room. A few minutes later they had all donned Garrison jackets and cloaks, and had secured the individual packs containing their own cloaks and jackets to their packhorses, but the others had yet to return with the horses for Pixis and his men.

"That's a handsome cane, Captain. It's good to see you on two feet again. I couldn't help but notice, though, that one of your men is using your crutches, another looks like she was in quite a fight, and it appears one man didn't survive the journey here. What happened?"

Damn the old fox for making him speak the language he despised. "We can't tell you here, even in Greek. It's too exposed. Before we leave, you need to retrieve the log book showing not only our arrival, but also that of any Scouts who entered here before we arrived, yesterday or today. Swap it out with a new one and take the full one with you. We've learned who some of our spies are, including the shifters who destroyed the first Wall, and it sounds like they beat us here," Levi said in Greek, careful not to use any names or terms that might betray a hint of his message to anyone else who might be listening and didn't know the language.

Levi was pleased to see Pixis only narrowed his eyes slightly at his words, and otherwise didn't betray so much as a hint of their import. But he still wouldn't tell him about his man Randall and the rest of it, not until they were in the relative safety of Garrison 3, in the Capital. From what Armin had told him, Pixis would likely react strongly to Randall's death.

"I'll be back in a moment. Weissman, Holz, Baumgarten, Huber, you're with me," Pixis said, as he headed back towards the Gate, his four burliest men at his back.

They returned with the book tucked securely under Pixis's arm, just as his other men arrived with the horses. Both groups mounted up.

"We'll of course try to avoid Military Police patrols, but with 24 men and 36 horses between us, including the packhorses, this is an unusually large group. I suggest we split into four smaller groups, each with nine packhorses, and head for my base, so we attract less attention," Pixis said.

Erwin gave him a slight smile. "I was just about to suggest the same. Kirstein, Blouse, Springer, you're with me. Hange, you're with Bauer and Anders. Levi, you're with Arlert, Ackerman and Yeager. Commander Pixis, please fill your men into our ranks at your discretion."

"I'll head up the fourth group. Six to a team total, people," Pixis told his men, letting them fill in the gaps.

The four groups filled out, and then they began heading to the Inner Gate, each taking a different route, led by Pixis or his men.


	14. Chapter 14 - Target Sighted

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 14 – Target Sighted

Jean was on edge. He was glad the Commander hadn't split him and Sasha and Connie up, but he was anxious about Armin, Mikasa and the others. He particularly hadn't wanted to be separated from Armin, especially since Mikasa was a target, knowing Armin would do anything to protect her. That's why he'd sent Marco's ghost off with them. Jean had been so relieved when, like earlier with Sasha, Marco had done as he asked, although he honestly wasn't sure what sort of protection, if any, Marco could offer.

He still couldn't believe someone wanted to kill Mikasa that badly. Why her in particular? Or were there posters out there for Armin and Eren too, maybe even Captain Levi and the Commander? He severely doubted there'd be one with his own name and image on it. He'd never done anything at all remarkable or impressive, except maybe for that gas run he'd led while protecting Trost.

Jean kept a nervous eye out for the Military Police. The last thing he wanted was to run into any of those bastards, after what they'd done to the three of them. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, having him and Sasha and Connie all in a single group like this, although being with Commander Erwin certainly made him feel the safest he possibly could be, if he wasn't with Captain Levi: even injured as he was, the Captain would still kick ass.

It was amazing how different it was, riding disguised as a Garrison soldier. They weren't glared at or sneered or laughed at, or viewed with pity or disdain. For the most part, they were just ignored. It was a welcome change. Especially when they began seeing signs of the Titan battle between Eren and Annie: a pristine perfect block, except for a single pile of rubble where a building used to be. Or a mostly intact house, with the roof or a wall caved in, where a hand had come down, or a butt, or a foot hadn't quite cleared the corner, in the violent chase. Some areas or buildings were roped off, while others had construction crews hard at work.

Jean thought the most disturbing were the mournful, still sites with vases of flowers and candles, with tankards of long stale ale beside them, or a book, or a kerchief, until he saw the one with the dolls, and another with a stuffed bear, poignant shrines to incomprehensible loss. Titans weren't supposed to kill people within the Walls. That was the whole point of the Corps, to keep them at bay. Yet the Titans who ravaged Stohess had been two of their own – part of the military, at least, though Annie had been an MP.

He wondered if Eren was also seeing crushed buildings and impromptu shrines. Thank God it wasn't Armin who was the Titan. He didn't think Armin could ever forgive himself for what had happened. He knew Armin hadn't forgiven Annie, that he never would. Which was fine by him. Jean didn't think she should be forgiven, for what she'd done, and maybe now she'd finally be forced to face her crimes, thanks to Hange's dynamite.

They made it halfway across the city without anything unusual or threatening happening. Maybe that was why Jean noticed the man who had just left his house and looked up at them in casual interest, because the man's gaze turned to shocked recognition as he stared at them for a moment, before he turned away and darted back into the house, slamming the door behind him.

Jean eyed the door suspiciously, half expecting the man to appear with a half dozen others at his back, ready to start trouble, but the door remained resolutely closed as Jean stopped his horse and turned in the saddle, unwilling to look away, an uneasy feeling blossoming in his gut as the others rode past the house.

His eyes automatically scanned upwards, likely because the trouble, the danger they usually faced, came from above. And that was when he saw it, the sway of bright curtains, the telltale jarring glint of dark metal in the late afternoon sun.

"Sniper!" Jean yelled, feeling like a fool, but unwilling to risk being right and not acting, as he shot his grapples into the side of the building and headed for what appeared to be a gun barrel protruding from the window, blocking the potential line of fire to the others with his own body, half convinced he was being paranoid, overreacting like an idiot, that the Commander and later the Captain would chastise him for it, until he heard the crack of a shot and at almost the same instant felt hot metal rip through his left bicep, terrifyingly close to his heart. Then he was through the window, the force of the bullet not enough to stop him, the upper glass smashing, the wooden frame splintering, his feet impacting against a hard chest, as he rocketed into the room.

Jean scrambled to his feet, as the man clambered to his, a look of fury on his face as he swung the rifle at him, using it as a club. "You protected that murderer! I'll kill you for that!"

Jean ducked the blow and spun, slamming his right fist into the man's arm. The gun went flying into the wall, as the man fell to the side, unbalanced by the blow. Jean dove towards him and tried to follow up with a left hook to his face, but belatedly discovered he was unable to form a fist or move his left arm properly.

The man retaliated, striking out at him, targeting his wound.

Jean's roar of rage turned into a scream as fire consumed his arm and his vision blurred into a red haze. He toppled forward, but grabbed the man's shirt with his right hand, trying to hold him down, to keep him from his gun, even as his head snapped back from a second blow he hadn't seen coming.

"**Bastard!" **

Jean was barely able to process that the oddly muted sounding scream of fury was Sasha's, as the man was torn out from under his grasp and he heard crashes and bangs. He fought against the pain and dizziness and the red haze, struggling to stand, to help. _Sasha! I have to protect Sasha!_

"Blouse, that's enough! Don't kill him! We need to question him, to find out who he's working with," the Commander ordered, from just above him.

_When did Commander Erwin get here? _

"Jean? Fuck, shit, he's bleeding! He's been shot!" Connie yelled in alarm.

_Holy shit. Shot. That bastard actually shot me! He really had been trying to kill us. No. Not us. Murderer. One of us._

"Kirstein, stay with us," Commander Erwin ordered, as a strong hand clamped over his wound, making the command impossible to follow, as a screaming wave of pain ended in darkness.

0 0 0

"Jean!" Sasha yelled, panicked, as he fell limp.

Weber, one of the two Garrison soldiers riding with them, knelt beside Jean, feeling for the pulse at his throat, as the Commander kept his bloody hand clamped tightly to the wound, to staunch the flow of blood. "His heart's still strong," Weber assured them, as he tore open a field medic kit and began pulling out gauze, tape and antiseptic.

"He got hit in the head too, with a fist. I couldn't get to them fast enough," Connie said angrily, balanced on his good leg, in the same distinctive crane style fighting stance that had gotten Sasha chewed out for "goofing around" during their cadet training, a lifetime ago. Later that same day, she'd begun teaching her intrigued combat partner the fighting form her father had passed down to her in earnest, the techniques of which Connie had quickly mastered during their impromptu practice sessions, displaying remarkable aptitude.

"We're fortunate Kirstein managed to spot him before he effectively ambushed us. If we're lucky, we'll be able to question this man and find out who he is, who he's working with, and why he attacked us," Erwin said, scowling reprimandingly at Sasha.

"I'm sorry, sir. I wasn't thinking. I just, I saw Jean's blood and the gun and … Why would he want to shoot us?" Sasha asked, not understanding how anyone could want to kill another human, especially not a soldier, someone protecting them all from the monsters wanting to eat them.

"The rest of the house is clear. It looks like a woman and at least one child live here as well, but if there was anyone else home, they're gone now," the other Garrison soldier said, entering the room.

"Good. Daniels, go back down and secure the horses. The last thing we need is someone stealing them or the supplies. But keep an eye out for trouble," Weber told the other Garrison man. "We'll send someone back here to question the man's wife, once she returns."

Daniels nodded and left.

Jean moaned as Weber sponged the blood away from the wound.

"The bullet went through the fleshy part of his arm. It doesn't look like it did too much damage, it looks like it missed both the artery and the bone. He's lucky. Neither Daniels nor I have any enemies, and the Garrison isn't loved, but we aren't actively hated in Stohess either. It looks like this man was likely targeting one or more of you, that he apparently recognized you as Scouts, in spite of the Garrison jackets. It was probably you that he was targeting, Commander, since other than Captain Levi and Eren Yeager, and perhaps Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman, very few Scouts are known on sight," Weber theorized.

Commander Erwin stiffened. "Let's hope that no one has targeted the four of them. Damn it, I never should have sent them together."

"He said … something about … me protecting a murderer," Jean mumbled, as he tried to sit, and then hissed and fell back.

"Jean! Don't move, you idiot. Let him take care of you," Sasha chastised, as she felt her cheeks wet with tears, which she wiped away. _Thank goodness he wasn't killed!_

"It looks like you might have just saved my life, Kirstein. Thank you," Commander Erwin said solemnly.

"I didn't … really think… I'd be able to pay Captain Levi back so quickly… for him saving mine a second time," Jean muttered, between clenching and unclenching his jaw against the pain, and suddenly Sasha remembered Jean's words to Eren, after Levi saved them from the MPs: "Someday, maybe I'll repay him by saving him, or Erwin, or Armin or you or Mikasa."

"Tell us what you saw," the Commander ordered.

"He was leaving this building, but…" Jean broke off with a hiss of pain, and he paled.

"Sorry. But I need to clean the wound and wrap it tightly, and I can't give you any painkillers while we're out here," Weber apologized. "When we reach our base, the doctor there will make sure the bullet didn't fragment inside, or chip off any bone, before he stitches it shut, but he can give you anesthesia for that, so you're not in pain."

"OK…it's not as bad now, but shit, that hurts. I'm even more impressed by Armin now. Crap. Armin. He's going to be upset when he sees me."

"Kirstein…." Erwin encouraged.

"Oh. Right. Sorry. So I saw him leaving the house, but when he saw us, he looked shocked, and then he ran back inside, like he was going to get his friends to kick the crap out of us or something." Jean winced and flinched, but then continued speaking.

"But then the door stayed closed, and I just automatically looked up at the rooftops, you know? And that's when I saw the curtain move, and the glint of sunlight on what looked like a gun barrel. I wasn't even certain that's what it was, I kind of half expected to look like a complete idiot, but I just couldn't take that chance, so I warned you all and went after him, because I didn't think any of you saw him. I'm not thrilled I got shot, but it would have been a lot worse if I hadn't gone after him."

"Do you think you can make it the rest of the way across Stohess and to the base on horseback? It's not very far from the Inner Gate of Stohess to the Garrison 3 base," Erwin encouraged.

"Yeah, I can make it. But what about this guy? Do we just strap him to one of the packhorses?" Jean asked.

"Yes, after we bind him securely. I don't want any more surprises," Erwin said grimly.

0 0 0

Armin jumped, startled, and reined in his horse. "Was that a gunshot?"

"Sounded like it. We'll let the MPs or the Garrison worry about it. I don't like being out in the open like this any longer than we have to be. Be sure the three of you keep your faces hidden in those cloaks," Levi ordered.

"But what if one of the other groups is in trouble?" Armin asked.

"There was only the single shot. I doubt it was aimed at any of us, but if it was, the gunman will have the other five in the group to answer to for it," Levi said coolly, the tone of his voice belied by the fact that he was staring intently in the direction of the shot, as if trying to see through the buildings.

Armin felt the blood drain from his face. "You mean one of us might have been killed? How can you just say that, like it doesn't even matter?" Armin accused, shocked, even seeing Levi wasn't as unaffected as he'd made it sound.

"Because if they're already dead, there's not a damned thing you or I or anyone can do about it. You do your best to lay their ghost to rest, and you move the fuck on. It's either that or take a gun to your head, the way Jean did, which just means one more loss for those left behind. Or you drown yourself in a bottle, and next mission take half a dozen teammates with you, because you're either too drunk or too hungover or shaking too badly from the DTs to fight effectively. I've seen stupid, selfish fuckers take both those options, and their emblems have a drawer all to themselves in my room, away from everyone else's, because I refuse to dishonor the memories of those who fought and died bravely, protecting their squadmates and civilians, but I don't ever want to forget those other bastards. In the end, they were murderers. They deserved to die. This is a cold, hard, cruel, deadly world, Armin. You know that as well as anyone," Levi accused.

"I… OK, fine. But what if whoever fired that shot is still out there? What if they got away, and next time they hit one of Hange's packhorses? If you shoot dynamite, will it explode?" Armin asked.

"You're just a fucking ray of sunshine today, aren't you Armin?" Levi said acidly, even as he looked toward the west again, where the sound had come from. "There would have been more shots by now. Look, brat, this could also be some sort of trap, to draw us in or expose ourselves. Regardless, if the MPs are anywhere near there, we can't risk them seeing us. We need to get to the base. There's too much we don't know about why they're trying to arrest Mikasa. And things we need to tell Pixis."

Armin looked guiltily at the packhorse carrying Randall's body. Pixis had assumed it was a Scout who had been killed. He hadn't realized the body was one of his own men, one of his inner circle: a friend.

He felt a comforting hand on his right shoulder, his injured side, the warmth of the touch calming him. At least he was with Mikasa and she… He froze, reining in Patroclus as he saw Mikasa was meters away. And Eren was beside her. Then who was comforting him? It wasn't Levi.

Patroclus whinnied in distress and Achilles trumpeted an angry challenge and immediately wheeled about, heading for them, as Armin turned his head in surprise to see which of the Garrison soldiers was touching him, kind of annoyed now, and then he shivered. Because no one was there. But he still felt the hand.

_What the __**heck**__?_

Armin turned back around and jerked back just in time as Achilles lunged for his shoulder, though fortunately Levi also hauled on his reins, yanking him back, before Achilles could bite him.

"What the fuck's gotten into you, you little shit? Patroclus is fine. Armin would never hurt him. Try to bite Armin again, and I'll chop you up and sell you on the Black Market as stew meat," Levi threatened.

Armin realized the eerie touch had vanished with Achilles' attack, as if it had never been. And it couldn't have, could it? Was he so freaked out about the shot, he was imagining things, wishing Jean was there to hold him?

Levi turned his attention from Achilles to Armin. "Fuck. Next time, if he lunges at you, punch him in the face. He must have scared the shit out of you. You're nearly as white as my pants, Armin. You look like you just saw a ghost."

Armin gasped as the analogy provided the only marginally sane yet still impossible rationalization. _Saw? No. But felt one, maybe? Except ghosts aren't real, are they? Unless… could it have been Randall, maybe? Or… oh God! What if it was Jean who was shot? And his soul came to me, just to make sure I was OK, before going to heaven? _Armin's already pounding heart felt like it might suddenly stop.

"Fuck. You didn't, did you?" Levi asked, staring at him with frightening intensity.

"Didn't what?" Armin asked distractedly, as his thoughts raced, hating how his voice suddenly sounded squeaky again, like back when he was a terrified cadet.

"See a ghost. Is something fucking with you, Armin? I've never come across a malevolent spirit, and if anyone should have, it would be me, but that doesn't mean they're all benign. If you see or hear or feel anything weird, you need to tell me," Levi ordered. "So did you see one?"

"No," Armin answered truthfully, because he hadn't seen anything, he'd only felt it, and he couldn't have, could he? Did Levi really believe in ghosts?

"Have you ever seen one?" Armin challenged.

"Tch. I should be so lucky," Levi responded, a wealth of bitter grief and loss in his voice.

_Does that mean he thinks he's seen more than one, or that he wishes he had seen one? _Armin couldn't ask him to clarify his vague statement.

"What's going on? Why did you stop? What are you two whispering about?" Eren asked suspiciously, riding up to them, sounding a little hurt, Mikasa at his side.

"We were talking about how we'd like to double team you, you know, both fuck you at once, and arguing over who'd get your mouth and who'd get your ass," Levi dissembled glibly.

Eren blanched, looking as shocked by the prospect as Armin felt. **"What?"**

"No we weren't! It wasn't about you at all. Why would you say that?" Armin asked, mortified, blushing darkly at the vivid mental image.

"So that you'd both clam up and whatever he didn't want one or both of you to know would stay secret," Mikasa piped up confidently. "But you're all drawing attention to us, and that's the last thing we need right now."

"Shit. She's right. I fucking know better. I guess that shot has me more on edge than I was willing to admit. I'm worried it was directed at one of us, but we'll find out soon enough. We need to get to the relative safety of the Garrison 3 base. Come on. Let's pick up the pace a bit," Levi urged, and the five of them matched their horses' gates to Levi's, Armin careful to keep out of the range of Achilles' teeth.


	15. Chapter 15 - Missing and Lost

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 15 – Missing and Lost

Fortunately Pixis's group was the first to reach the Garrison 3 base, so Levi was saved an explanation he didn't have the patience to give. Pixis had heard the shot too, but it had been east of their position. Which meant it could either have been Erwin's group, or Hange's who was the target, although just as likely an incident unrelated to them. Only he didn't believe that. _Was someone hit? Killed? Is Erwin alright? Sasha? Hange?_

Levi reluctantly dismounted and started tending to Achilles, ordering the others to tend to their mounts as well. They likely wouldn't be taking their horses the rest of the way. Much as he hated leaving Achilles behind, he was also relieved he wouldn't be endangering him in a battle in the confined, rubble-choked, Titan infested streets of Shiganshina.

Anxious minutes later, when Hange's group arrived safely, Levi felt both relieved and still worried, for Erwin and Sasha, and hell, for Jean and even that little shit Connie, as well as Pixis's two men. He didn't want anyone to have been hurt or killed.

His anxiety only increased when agonizing minutes later, Erwin's group still failed to reappear.

Achilles whickered softly, the gentle sound alien to the usually arrogant little horse, and then he lipped Levi's hair, apparently sensing how upset he was becoming, and trying to reassure him. Any other time, Levi would have berated the animal for covering his hair in horse spit, but this time he leaned into his neck, clutching his mane, and whispered into it. "Erwin's not dead. He can't be. I won't let him be. So he's not. He's going to come riding in on that fucking mountain on hooves, and raise his damned eyebrow at me when he sees I was worried about him."

_What if the person who had fired that shot was Reiner or Bertolt? What if they dragged Erwin off somewhere, to torture and kill, like Randall? Or what if it was that fucker who poisoned us? Or what if there are posters out there targeting the rest of us, and Erwin has to run through an entire gamut of people out for his blood?_

"Fuck this. Armin, take care of Achilles, after you're done with Patroclus," Levi called out, snatching up his cane. "I'm going to see what the fuck is taking Erwin so long."

"I'll ask some of Pixis's men to take care of them. We'll all go," Armin piped up, joining him in front of the stalls.

"No. Stay here and help guard Mikasa," Levi told him quietly, not wanting to broadcast her name, or Eren's too loudly. "I'm going to use my gear, and I can travel faster without you," Levi insisted.

"Levi, you can't use your gear in Stohess. People are going to panic," Mikasa argued, overhearing them. "I'm sure Erwin and Sasha and the others are fine."

"You don't know that, and I don't fucking care what the civilians think about me using my gear inside the Walls."

"I'm sorry, Captain Levi, but I'm afraid I can't allow that. The last thing the Corps needs right now is that kind of visibility, especially not in Stohess," Pixis apologized, joining them, the five men he'd ridden with at his back, reinforcing his words.

"I don't give a shit. Erwin's team should have been here by now," Levi snapped, barely able to keep the worry out of his voice.

"You need to calm down, son," Pixis ordered firmly but quietly in Greek.

"I'm not your son," Levi lashed out, in the same language.

"No, you're Melena's, aren't you? Which makes you my cousin," Pixis declared, freezing Levi with his words.

_Fuck. Pixis knows. When did he figure it out? Years ago, or recently?_

"I suspected as much once I had time to think about what you were doing in my office. About why you were going through my personal journals."

"Randall's dead. He was tortured and murdered. That's his body we're carrying, the one you saw," Levi retaliated viciously, instinctively, at the mention of his mother, their connection to Pixis, and the Greek he hated to hear and speak.

It was as if he cut Pixis's legs out from under him with the sword concealed in his cane. The old man paled, staggered, and fell against Achilles' stall door, barely catching himself with a shaking hand.

"Commander!"

"What did you tell him?"

"What did you say about Randall?"

Levi wasn't intimidated by the men circled around him menacingly, exclaiming angrily and demanding answers, but he felt like shit for what he'd said. Armin had warned him Randall was part of Pixis's inner circle, like family to the man, and he'd purposefully gone for the jugular with his words.

"I'm sorry. I'm a dick. I shouldn't have told you that way. But I'm going to find Erwin," Levi insisted.

Pixis straightened, waving away the helping hands of his men. "No, Captain, you're not, even if I have to forcibly detain you to prevent it," he said, his voice filled with steel.

Levi's fist clenched on the handle of his sword cane, but Mikasa's hand covered it. "Levi, you need to calm down. Let Pixis's men look for Erwin's team, on horseback, with a medic. They'll be more help, if he or someone else with him is injured."

Levi opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again, at the sound of approaching hoofbeats outside the stable. He slammed on his gas and shot out a grapple, and then another, and was at the door to the stable before anyone could stop him.

Levi's thundering heart started to calm the second he saw Erwin astride Heracles. "Where the hell have you… Shit! What the fuck happened?" Levi demanded, his heart trip hammering again, as he saw the blood on Erwin's uniform.

0 0 0

Jean was glad he wasn't the Commander, from the look on Levi's face, as he approached him. "That better not be your blood, Erwin," Levi snarled heading at a fast limp for them, his cane making a staccato rhythm on the cobblestone.

"It's not. It's mine," Jean volunteered, in an attempt to placate their agitated Captain, which backfired spectacularly.

"**What?"** Armin shrilled, bolting towards him, while a sudden blast of frigid air beat Armin to his side. Jean shivered as goosebumps ran up and down his arms, not entirely from the cold, as icy, insubstantial hands literally ghosted all over his body. Marco was frantic, the same way he'd been when the MPs attacked him, but this time he didn't vanish.

"Idiot," Connie said in disgust.

"Yeah, well, I'd blame it on low oxygen to the brain due to blood loss, but that would just make it worse, wouldn't it?" Jean muttered ruefully.

He winced as Armin visibly paled, and the cold around him intensified.

"Shit! I'm sorry," Jean apologized, addressing his words to both the spirit of his dead would-be lover, and his actual lover. "I didn't think you'd hear me, but I guess I should have known better than to joke about it. I'm fine. Well, my arm hurts like hell, but it's not like I'm dying or anything," Jean amended, feeling hollow the moment the words left his mouth.

_How can I joke about dying, when you actually did die, Marco? God, I'm such an idiot! You're really here, aren't you? You're real. I'm sorry. I sent you off with Armin, and now you're frantic again, because you weren't with me. Please calm down. I'm fine, I'm safe._

"None of us died, thanks to Kirstein," Erwin commented, and the emptiness inside Jean filled with pride at the honest admission even as Levi flashed a look at him, before focusing once more on Erwin.

"There was a sniper, but Jean saw him and attacked him before he finished targeting us," Sasha explained. "The bastard ended up rushing his shot and aiming at Jean instead, and then Jean tackled him and held him down, until I got there and kicked the crap out of the sniper. I'm sorry, Levi. I was really pissed. He's still unconscious, but Commander Erwin stopped me before I beat him to death, so we should still be able to interrogate him."

The cold hovering around Jean markedly lessened, even as Levi's eyes narrowed. "What the hell do you mean, 'aiming at Jean instead'? Who the fuck was he aiming at?" he asked suspiciously.

"We need to continue this discussion inside, with Commander Pixis," Erwin said calmly.

"Shit. Fuck. It was you, wasn't it? I knew I shouldn't let you out of my sight," Levi bitched.

"Inside, Levi. And Commander Pixis, Kirstein's already received a field dressing, but we'd like a doctor to tend to him, and to examine our prisoner. The body we brought to the City with us should be placed in your Infirmary, but no one should be allowed access to it until after our meeting," Erwin added.

Pixis looked at Erwin with accusing, grief stricken eyes. "In my office, now. My men can see to your horses."

_Shit._ _It looks like someone has already told Pixis about Randall. _Jean dismounted, trying unsuccessfully to suppress a wince as he accidentally put pressure on his arm. Armin was instantly at his side. He could tell Armin wanted to put his arm around him, to steady him, but he restrained himself. _Fuck it. Armin needs to hold me, and it's not like Pixis's men will care. _Jean wrapped his arm around Armin's shoulders, using him as a crutch.

Armin stiffened in surprise for a moment, and then leaned against him in relief, wrapping his arm around his waist to further support him. Jean was impressed again by how deceptively strong Armin was.

Their other men all gathered around them, and the eleven of them followed Pixis into the Garrison building, and then down the corridors to his office. On the way Pixis waved over different men and women, gathering five, whispering and muttering to them intently, inaudibly to the rest of them, and then openly sending another to fetch a doctor.

Jean was impressed by Pixis's office. It was much larger than Erwin's, easily able to hold them all, even seated: there was a cluster of comfortable looking chairs and sofas in front of a large fireplace. But Pixis brought them into an adjoining room, where there was a conference table surrounded by 18 chairs and no windows. At the Survey Corps base, they often used the Officer's Mess for larger strategy meetings, at least, in the days before they were worried about spies.

0 0 0

Levi fidgeted in his chair, trying and failing to get comfortable, as Pixis introduced the five people. "Captain Stacy Morrison, Lieutenant Donovan Peterson, Captain Karl Schneider and his Lieutenant, Piotr Andreovich, and Captain Diego Montoya, all of the Special Forces, and my inner circle."

Erwin introduced himself and all their men to the others, and they were made welcome with silent nods of greeting.

"We have a number of important issues we need to discuss, some of which will impact your people more than others, Commander," Erwin stated.

"Before you say another word on any of the rest of it, I need to know who killed Randall, how, and why," Pixis demanded.

"And I'll tell you shortly, but it ties into why we're here. Our current mission, though concealed as a training mission, is to reach Eren Yeager's basement, by way of the secret tunnel here in the Underground, connecting the Capital to Shiganshina," Erwin pronounced.

There was an appropriate show of surprise from those in the room.

"I need to take a look at that logbook I had you smuggle out of the Outer Gate base. I believe what's inside directly ties into Randall's death," Erwin said coolly.

Levi saw Pixis's eyes narrow, but he handed it to Erwin. Erwin flipped the pages to the most recent entries, and Levi leaned forward to look. And there, clear as day, were Braun's and Hoover's names, with the date and time of their arrival.

_They beat us by half a day. Because Erwin stopped early, because he was worried about my fucking leg. Lenz and Ymir headed here too, as we suspected, but this shows they arrived hours before the other two did. They must have taken the main road. Maybe they have nothing to do with the other two. Maybe they're not spies and traitors. But we can't take that risk. _

Erwin looked Pixis in the eye. "We believe we've uncovered our Titan spies. Two of them, at any rate. If we're right, they're both shifters and both Scouts." He slid the book over to Pixis. "To be precise, we believe Reiner Braun is the Armored Titan, and Bertolt Hoover is the Colossal Titan."

As expected, the pronouncement was met with intakes of breath and looks of grim determination.

"It is quite likely the two of them have already left Stohess and entered the Capital before us. We need to see the logbook of the Inner Gate as well, as I doubt they'd risk exposure by going over the Wall. They obviously haven't gone through it. But before you send someone to get that book, if they haven't passed through the Inner Gate yet, it is imperative those two men don't become alarmed. We don't want them confronted, or to give away that we suspect them. It would prove catastrophic, not only to your men, but to the Capital as a whole."

"Montoya, please obtain that second logbook for us. Schneider can fill you in on what you miss," Pixis said, and the man stood.

"Of course, sir." He rose and left without another word.

"Alright. Out with it, Commander Erwin. Are you saying two of your men are responsible for killing Randall?" Pixis demanded.

"Regrettably, yes. Randall arrived safely at our base, and delivered the documents you sent for our inspection, and then left with them, but on his way back here, on the road, he was waylaid and brutally tortured, likely while being interrogated, and then killed."

Pixis paled further, and Schneider and Andreovitch cursed, but Peterson let out a sound of pure pain, almost a sob. Andreovitch rose and went to him, clasping his shoulder. "I am sorry _tovarisch_."

"Forgive me. I didn't realize Peterson was from your Squad, that they were lovers. Perhaps Peterson should leave the room?" Erwin suggested, betraying an unusual amount of compassion.

"No. Terry is… was Lieutenant Nikolai Gardenski's lover. Terry and I …we were good friends. We grew up together, trained together, but were assigned to different squads. I need to hear what happened to him. I need to know why he died," Peterson pleaded.

"The documents he was carrying included a map of the Aqueduct system beneath the Walled area. We believe Hoover and Braun are going to use that map, that their next move is going to be to either destroy the tunnel connecting the Sigma and Nu Gates, or maybe even use it to beat us to Shiganshina, so they can ambush us after we discover whatever is hidden in Eren Yeager's basement. Which means everyone in the Capital, and particularly the Underground, is in danger."

"Hypatia. The orphans. Everyone. Damn it," Pixis said, sounding overwhelmed.

"We know you'll want to warn them, but it needs to be done discreetly. Hoover and Braun would recognize any of us, instantly, so it should be your men, but preferably someone adept at fitting in belowground. Those two traitors have already shown they're willing to kill soldiers who get in their way," Levi stated, not even trying to mask his fury.

"We'll send Piotrvich and Kirkov. They've been to the Library once before. Hypatia will know them on sight, and she'll be less likely to balk at a warning coming from two women. Regrettably, sometimes she can be as headstrong as her father was," he said with a heavy sigh.


	16. Chapter 16 - Murders and Motivations

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Woohoo! Over 100 reviews! Thanks so much to everyone who has sent a review or marked this story as a favorite or followed it. Please keep them coming! As a reminder, I personally respond to every review, as long as you have a PM address.**

If you're a fan, don't forget to check out my other new story,

_**It's Not What You Think**_**, listed under D. Gray-Man (not under the crossover tab, though it's a crossover with Karneval). I highly recommend the Karneval anime, which few people have seen and is sadly only 13 episodes long, though there's more to the manga. If you haven't seen it or read the manga, you can Wiki cheat to find out who's who.  
**

**If you like these stories, you might also like my original published work, the four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, by Maria Albert, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 16 – Murders and Motivations

"I know you likely have more questions about how we figured out who the spies were, and about Randall's death," Levi told Pixis. "For now, you most need to know that it was because of Randall's murder that we realized who the spies were, so his death wasn't pointless or meaningless at all, though it might seem to be, on the surface. But before we continue with that, what we need to know next is, why is the Military Police trying to arrest Mikasa Ackerman. What murders is she supposed to have witnessed?"

Pixis sighed. "Not witnessed, exactly, though she's being arrested as a material witness. The truth is, she is apparently the catalyst for those murders. Four days ago, bounty posters started circulating, with Scout Ackerman's image on them, and a reward of 5,000 silver for her confirmed death. After one of my men saw one of the posters, and reported it to me, we immediately went to the bounty offices, to insist they revoke the reward offer, and to tell us who commissioned it. We can't very well have soldiers being targeted.

"However, when we got to the first office, the man who ran it was dead: he'd been beaten, tortured and killed. But it was the way he was killed that was most significant. It was a ritual we'd seen before: his fingers had been cut off, his throat had been slashed, the number 10 carved into his forehead, and a bloody bounty poster of Scout Ackerman pinned to his the body with a knife, impaling his heart.

Levi froze. _Kenny. Number 10. That twisted fucker's Commandment: '__Thou shalt covet everything thou seest, unless it is mine'. __No. Not Mikasa_. _There's no way I'm letting that insane fucker claim Mikasa as his own._

"We went to the three other bounty offices in Stohess, and at each one found the exact same pattern, down to the number. Those killings matched identical types of slayings from two decades ago, the Numbers Slayings. You've heard of them, I'm sure: a serial killer, who primarily targeted the Military Police, and mutilated his victims. Although it was more complex than that. Different numbers were engraved in the victims' foreheads each time, and different parts of their bodies were mutilated. We know there was some kind of sick pattern to it, but we were never able to crack the code, to fully grasp the significance of those numbers. Personally, my own pet theory was that it was someone enforcing a deranged, distorted version of the Ten Commandments."

Levi fought not to reveal his shock. He should have known that, if anyone could figure it out, Pixis could. They weren't quite the Ten Commandments, not the biblical version, at any rate: they were Kenny's Commandments. Levi had known for years Kenny Ackerman was the Numbers Killer. But he'd never even told Erwin that. He wasn't about to tell Pixis. Because Kenny would find out, cut out his tongue, kill him slowly and carve a number 3 in his forehead, for betraying him: _Thou shalt not speak my name._

The only one Levi had trusted enough to mention anything at all to about Kenny was Erwin, and only because Erwin would be in danger for not knowing, because Kenny was a possessive son of a bitch, and he viewed Levi as his, and Levi would rather lose his tongue and his life than ever lose Erwin, to see his beloved face twisted in a rictus of agony, his beautiful eyes gouged out and a 10 carved in his forehead_._

"Word will spread, of course," Levi noted, as he fought down a shudder. "It's been made clear to even a moron that anyone seeking that bounty will meet the same fate, or worse. If you find another victim in a similar state who isn't a bounty hunter, we can assume that man or woman is the person who placed the bounty on Mikasa's head. The torture of the others would have been primarily to learn the identity of the stupid ass who declared the bounty and offered the reward. Personally, I hope that fucker got what he deserved, the way the heads of those shops did. As if the Corps wouldn't have gone after them, if someone hadn't beaten us to it."

"Not that we condone murder," Erwin interjected smoothly.

"Speak for yourself," Levi muttered.

"In certain circumstances, murder is necessary," Hange spoke up in agreement, surprising Levi. Not that she thought so, obviously, because she'd framed her own father for treason, for plotting regicide, so he'd be murdered by the crown, but for openly saying so in front of Erwin, Pixis, and their respective men.

Pixis trained those intelligent, kind, wise eyes of his on her. "Is it now?" he asked softly. "Torture and maiming and murder?"

_He's not just asking about the bounty hunter office heads, but about his own man, Randall._

"Yes. Sometimes," Hange answered without even blinking. "It can restore the karmic balance of the world. There are some people who have caused horrible suffering, even death, in their lifetimes, who deserve to reap what they sow: they deserve to die in as painful and traumatic a way as possible."

"And does their death alleviate the suffering of their victims?" Pixis pressed, his eyes boring into hers.

Hange shrugged. "That depends upon the person, and the extent of the crime done to them. All scars eventually fade with time, both internal and external, but some never fade enough for the victim to have what others might consider a normal life. But that's not what matters. What matters is that no one else can be hurt like that, ever again, not by that person.

"I've been thinking, since the Gate, about what Lieutenant Bremen said to us, the hatred in his voice when he said it. He told us his best friend lost his leg and his home, when the Female Titan and Yeager Titan fought. That a number of others lost their lives, or family members or friends, or were permanently maimed, or lost their homes because of it. He blamed us for turning Stohess into a battleground. He said we call ourselves Humanity's Saviors, but we're murderers. I think that's why the Corps was poisoned, why Mikasa, and likely a few select others of us have bounty posters on our heads, and why someone shot at Erwin on the way here. After all, you yourself had us dress in Garrison uniforms, so we'd be less conspicuous. Less of a target."

Pixis gave the briefest nod of his head, confirming her statement.

Hange continued. "Erwin told Bremen that he could have justice against the Female Titan, once we blew Leonhart out of her cocoon and interrogated her and made her speak. But then Erwin told him we were just as entitled to vengeance against her. Justice and vengeance are two different things, but with roughly the same goal: punishing the wicked, the cruel, the evil. The old saying is, 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.' But very few people who have had an eye gouged out would ever think that way," she said, her tone still clinically neutral, as if she hadn't personally been metaphorically blinded, when Levi new better.

"Which means, of course, that taking it a step further, Braun's and Hoover's attack, in their eyes, is justified. Not just their attack on Randall. Their attack on all of us. On Shiganshina. On Trost. The premeditated, carefully planned attacks on the Walls."

That little bomb left more than a few of them looking outraged, both their own men and Pixis's. But as always when Hange blew something up, she continued on, either merely unfazed or completely unaware of the extent of the blast.

"The most interesting thing is not why they attacked, but why they stopped," Hange stated.

That had everyone at the table, him included, sitting forward and listening with single-minded intensity. _Has that crazy scientist actually figured out the Titans' motives? _

"Think about it. We couldn't do a damn thing to stop them. They could easily have taken out Wall Rose and Wall Sina immediately after Wall Maria, eradicated us as a threat, exterminated us. Why didn't they? To prolong their food supply? They survived for a hundred years without eating humans. Or at least, without eating us. I'm convinced there are other human settlements out there, that they've been perhaps feeding upon them. But we're not really food, because they can't actually digest us, they just vomit us back up, as a half chewed, partially dissolved bolus. But that's a topic for another time.

"Consider the smug brutality of their attack. Of the Female Titan's. The deliberate cruelty. That smacks of vengeance in my eyes. I think, as much as we want vengeance against them, for hurting us, they're seeking vengeance of their own, because somehow, somewhere down the line, we hurt them. Either us, or our ancestors. Because maybe it even ties into why and how they became Titan shifters in the first place. Until Yeager Titan, we never realized that some Titans start out as humans. I'm not sure any of the rest of you have deduced the logical corollary of that fact: what if _all _Titans started out as humans? Over time do their minds erode, until all but mindless – to all extents and purposes carnivorous and cannibalistic – monsters remain? At some point in time will Yeager Titan be unable to switch back, and become an enemy instead of an ally?"

The look of horror on Eren's face, the denial in Armin's eyes, the terror in Mikasa's, and the revulsion in some of the others' had Levi wanting to clamp his hand over Hange's mouth, before she did any more collateral damage, but he needed to hear where she was going with this.

"We've been operating in the dark for far too long. We need to speak to Leonhart. If I'm right, if this is about vengeance, maybe there's a chance for peace. Maybe if we give them whatever it is they're after, this war can finally end. All wars eventually end. I'd just prefer if this one didn't end with the complete eradication of the human enemy."

That final pronouncement left silence in its wake, and then a babble of voices.

"You really think that? That I might lose my mind, and stay like that, and… and start eating people?" Eren asked over the chaos of other voices, horrified at the thought.

"It's possible. That's why I keep trying to have you take those aptitude tests while you're in Titan form. Actually, the results have been baffling. It depends upon who you're interacting with. You've proven remarkably responsive to both Ackerman and Armin. I was astonished by the control she had over you in your Titan form, on our last mission, and that Armin was able to exert, when you attacked us on the base. You seem to be increasing your intellect and control while in Titan form, not decreasing it. Even on base, when you tried to kill me and Ackerman and Levi, you were very careful not to hurt anyone else, not Kirstein or Blouse or Springer or Armin."

"Yeah, but that last part was just because of the soap your uniforms got washed in, right? That scent you were testing, to make Titans go crazy and attack one another, as if they were humans," Jean argued.

That had a number of heads turning in their direction.

"No, he…" Hange began.

"Hange," Erwin cautioned.

"Shitty Glasses," Levi said simultaneously, because now that she was talking about her research, and she had that gleeful look in her eyes, she'd obviously forgotten that was the lie they'd agreed to tell everyone but a few of them and Pixis, to keep Eren from being dragged off the base and executed.

She waved the both of them off, as if they weren't her superior officers. "Yeah, I know, the cover story was the soap I haven't finished inventing yet, but no one here is going to try to kill Eren for knowing the truth, and it's important they hear."

_Terrific._ Jean and Connie were both looking hurt and pissed, but at least Anders, Bauer and Sasha were just looking intrigued. Levi didn't give a shit what Pixis's men thought. That was his problem.

"There was no soap," Hange admitted. "The truth is, Eren thought Levi and Ackerman were sleeping together, and that I was the evil bitch telling everyone about it, so when Eren got hurt and bled and accidentally shifted, his Titan took his perfectly sane, rational wish to punch Levi's lights out a step further and decided we should all die. But the point is, as hurt and angry as he was, he actually listened to Armin, and stopped trying to kill us. So if he can be reasoned with, even in Titan form, even while enraged, maybe Braun and Hoover can be, either in Titan form or human form.

"They seem to have at least some rudimentary loyalty to the graduated cadets of the 104th, and maybe a hell of a lot more than that. Think about it. That last mission we were on, that disastrous ambush? They might have set us up for that, but while it was happening, they fought right along beside us, **against **the Titans attacking us. And of all the horrific casualties we suffered, we didn't lose a single Scout from the 104th. Unless it was deliberate, the odds against that are astronomical. The Female Titan, too. She actually defended and protected Armin more than once, or at the very least, didn't kill him when she had the chance," Hange claimed.

Jean jumped, as if someone had stabbed him in the back. "What about Marco? She killed him, didn't she? She stole his gear, and he died. Whether she killed him herself or tricked him somehow, or just knocked him out and took it, whatever the details, he wound up dead, half eaten," Jean all but yelled, visibly shaking.

Hange held out her hands in appeasement. "Yes, I know. She also eventually turned on Armin and tried to kill him, in Stohess. But that's just it: apparently the Titan shifters' level of desire to kill us inversely correlates to their level of affection for or loyalty to us. Time and again I heard what a protector Braun was, how he was like a big brother to the 104th. So obviously, the younger and weaker the member, the more that protective instinct would be brought to the fore. Or the greater the bond of friendship while in human form. Maybe even if a person reminded them of someone else, either live or dead, a lover or friend or sibling. We have no way of knowing, until we talk to them.

"But just like any other human, much as they might regret having to kill a friend, they might have deemed it necessary, for the greater good. They're trained soldiers, after all. If they're thinking of it from a soldier's perspective, the way we taught them to, casualties are inevitable in war. There will always be what we consider acceptable losses, when trying to accomplish our mission objective. The trick is, ensuring those losses don't become so high that the success factor of the mission isn't negated and overwhelmed by those losses: either loss of skilled manpower, or loss of morale. Unfortunately, maybe Marco Bott was simply considered a possibly regrettable but acceptable loss, in Leonhart's eyes," Hange explained, not unkindly.

There was far more compassion and understanding in her voice and eyes for Jean, and perhaps even Bott, than Levi expected to see, when she was talking about the Titans.

0 0 0

They briefed Pixis as quickly as possible on everything they knew about Randall, and Reiner and Bertolt, and warned them about Ymir and Krista potentially being a threat as well. Armin doubted Mikasa or Eren heard much of any of it. He had to force himself to listen, to participate, but Hange's words haunted him as well. _Is Eren actually going to lose his mind someday and eat us?_ He refused to believe it. No, more than that, he refused to allow it. Eren listened to him as a Titan and usually to Mikasa. It was their job to make certain he never became one of the monsters they fought.

But the implications were more far-reaching. _Could it be true? Could all Titans have at one time been human? If that's the case, what makes a person change into a Titan? Why hasn't anyone inside the Walls become a Titan before now, in the hundred years we've been confined and protected by the Walls? Or have they? Have they tunneled outside, or left though some other secret existing tunnel no one knew about, like the Aqueduct maintenance tunnels? Or have they just hidden amongst the rest of us, never using their ability to transform? Was Eren's father or mother a Titan shifter? Were they both? They must have been, right? How else could he have been born a Titan shifter? _

_There was no way of knowing, until they reached the basement. Dr. Yeager had told Eren answers to his questions, to secrets, were there. _"We need to talk to Annie. To find out what she knows, the secrets she's been keeping from us. Reiner and Bertolt don't know about the dynamite, the nitroglycerin, that we might be able to blast her out of her crystal prison. Or armor. Or whatever it is," Armin piped up.

"The brat's right. We need to stop wasting time dicking around here and interrogate Leonhart. We also need to question that sniper that was targeting Erwin. And Hans Schiffer, the man who poisoned us. And the person who put the bounty out on Mikasa, if he's still alive. I doubt those latter three have any ties to the Titans, but they might," Levi agreed, obviously eager for action.

"I'm going to join your delegation to the Military Police prison, along with some of my men. Lend a little extra weight and backing to it, particularly as no doubt some additional bad blood was generated between the Corps and the Military Police with the recent arrests they tried to conduct on your base," Pixis volunteered. "We'll question the sniper as soon as he's conscious. We have yet to capture Schiffer, or find the person responsible for placing the bounty on Scout Ackerman."

"We welcome your support," Erwin said, and then turned to Eren and Mikasa. "Yeager, Ackerman, the two of you are going to remain on base here, out of sight. We need you both for our mission to Shiganshina and can't risk the Military Police arresting you."

Armin could see how frustrated they both were, but at least they'd be together.

"Arlert, we're going to have you conduct the interrogation of Leonhart. We're going to try the soft approach first, play on whatever human emotion and guilt she might be feeling. Prior to your last encounter with her, she seemed protective of you, and you reported to me that Yeager saw her crying, after her capture. Which means that was the state of mind she went into hibernation in. Hopefully she's remained in that state of despair or guilt or regret," Erwin stated.

"And if that doesn't work, I kick the shit out of her, or just start chopping off body parts, a piece at a time. That threat seemed to freak her out, when we caught her in the forest, until I was stupid enough to give her the idea to get herself eaten, so she could escape," Levi said viciously and then bitterly.

"Just don't get carried away. She needs to stay alive to answer our questions," Erwin warned.

"I'm not some crazy fucker who gets his rocks off cutting off people's fingers and gouging out their eyes. Although blinding the bitch would be a good first step," Levi stated acidly.

"Just remember, I'm the expert at systematically torturing Titans, Levi. If it gets to be too much for you, I'd be more than happy to step in. Because depending upon the test subject, I take great delight in taking them apart," Hange announced.

"Bullshit. You fucking cry like a baby. You're too damn human still, no matter how hard you try not to be. As far as I'm concerned, she's not just another Titan: she's a lot fucking worse than a Titan. I won't have any greater trouble sleeping nights, no matter what I have to do," Levi claimed.

Armin knew if that was true at all, it was only because Levi seldom slept as it was. He hated hearing them speak about Annie like that, not because of what they would do to her, but what it would do to them. He was going to do everything he could to make her talk, so Levi and Hange didn't have to go to those extremes.

"We need to keep her in the dark, to keep her energy low," Hange instructed. "Have men positioned and ready to cut her out of her body, if she shifts again, but because of that crystal protection she uses, we need to attack her unconventionally. We need at least one more bowman, in addition to Sasha, but preferably four total, one to target each limb. She'll be protecting her neck, but we can blow her arms and legs off, over and over, as many times as we need to, until she can't generate the crystal to protect her vulnerable spot.

"But we need to crush her mentally too. We don't let her know how much time has passed. We tell her we've already killed the Armored Titan, Braun, and the Colossal, Hoover, we list their names, so she believes it. We let her know that she's next, unless she tells us what we want to know. Why did they destroy the Walls? Why did they stop? Who are the other Titan shifters? How many are there? Where are they? Why did they try to kidnap Eren, instead of killing him, when he's an obvious threat to them? What are their goals, their motivations in all this, the purpose in everything they've done? And once we've learned all we can, we kill the bitch, so she can't somehow escape," Hange stated coldly.

"I have three expert archers I can donate to the cause," Pixis volunteered.

"You'll only need one of them. Bauer and I can both shoot," Anders stated.

"Excellent. Hange, you instruct all four of them in the nuances of archery with dynamite, and then we make a list of questions to ask her. I'd like all your input on that." Erwin directed his statement not only to their men, but to Pixis and his.

"Commander, I need to be there. If something goes wrong, I'm the only one who will be able to protect all of you from the Female Titan," Eren asserted.

"No Yeager," Erwin stated. "I can't allow you to witness the interrogation, because the strong emotions it would invoke could accidentally trigger a Titan shift in you, and in that mental state, in that form, you might well side with the Female Titan against us. But you're right. Maybe you need to be closer to us, so if the worst happens and she somehow manages to break free, and get past the rest of us, you'll be there to stop her."

Erwin turned to Jean. "Kirstein, you're to remain outside the prison, out of sight, somewhere the Military Police won't see you, with Yeager and Ackerman. If the Female Titan escapes our control, those of us inside will have been either killed or incapacitated, most likely, the former. I'm temporarily placing you next in the chain of command. If Hange, Levi and I are taken out of commission, you are to assume command. Your primary duty at that time will be to aid Yeager Titan and Ackerman in killing the Female Titan, and then to return Yeager to his human form, by force if necessary. Then the three of you and any other survivors are to head directly into the Underground, and then to Shiganshina, and complete our mission. Is that understood?"

Jean's eyes widened, and he looked from Erwin to him, and then back. "Yes sir!" Jean belatedly replied, his voice sounding as stunned as Armin felt.

Erwin removed the key from around his neck and held it out to Jean. "Merely as a precaution. I expect to have that key returned to me once the interrogation concludes."

Jean swallowed and nodded as he gingerly accepted the key, and placed it around his neck. "As soon as the interrogation is over," he promised, as he tucked it out of sight under his shirt.

They began developing the list of questions to ask Annie, while Hange taught Sasha, Anders, Bauer and Steinwert, the Garrison archer, how to use the dynamite safely and effectively, though she didn't actually let them ignite any of it. They didn't want to panic the civilians, or betray their new weapon to Reiner and Bertolt, since the Inner Gate logbook had confirmed they'd definitely entered the Capital.


	17. Chapter 17 - More Questions Than Answers

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
CAUTION: Graphic torture scene towards the end of this chapter.**

Chapter 17 – More Questions Than Answers

Armin was thankful that Pixis was on their side, and that he was the one to negotiate with Commander Nile Dok. In the end, Dok was unable to deny their request to interrogate the prisoner, as they were the only ones with the means to potentially free Annie from her self-imposed prison of crystal. His condition was that he and 20 of his men observe. With only 8 scouts present, and 8 soldiers from the Garrison, that way they proved they remained in control, at least on the surface.

The Military Police transported Annie to a much larger underground room within the same prison for the interrogation, one that apparently normally served as a mess hall for the less dangerous prisoners. They needed room for all the men, but also, for them to be safe from the blast from the dynamite they would use to initially free her, as well as in case they needed to blow off her limbs, as they had discussed. But the room still had a low ceiling, which would discourage her from shifting into a Titan.

They'd already seen Annie had been reluctant to go underground before, because the walls and ceiling would crush her if she shifted, or at least trap her. At least, they assumed that was the reason. For all they knew, Annie might be horribly claustrophobic. Considering that she was now trapped in a prison of her own making, it would be incredibly ironic, if that were the case.

Armin wondered whether Annie was conscious, whether she was aware or not. They assumed she could break out anytime she chose to, but maybe she couldn't, since she was completely enclosed. Maybe she was catatonic and trapped. Maybe the crystal had sealed over like that in her desire to hide, to somehow escape from them, subconsciously triggered, not a conscious decision at all. Maybe she was even dead, suffocated by the crystal long ago, right after being imprisoned. He hoped she wasn't, and not just because they needed to find out the Titans' motivations and plans. But if she was still alive, why hadn't Reiner and Bertolt rescued her?

Sasha, Anders, Bauer and Steinwert, the Garrison archer, all took up position in the four corners of the improvised interrogation room. Everyone else had swords bladed and at the ready. Considering he, Levi and Connie were all injured, Armin was glad the Garrison and even the MPs were there. Dok had glared at Levi, Sasha and Connie, obviously still infuriated about being made a fool of at their base. Armin was glad Jean hadn't been there. Dok seemed to take sick delight in the fact that Connie was now injured.

Hange was humming to herself as she attached the dynamite to the crystal, using what appeared to be a particularly sticky form of clay.

"Oi, Shitty Glasses! Remember, we need her able to talk, but we don't want her to be able to move easily. Give us something to work with, so we can torture her, but don't free her completely," Levi reminded her.

Armin's eyes went to the graphically effective torturer's bench they'd set up near Annie. He wished it was only for show, but he was afraid they might need to get creative with their questioning. _No. I'll make her talk to me, so they don't have to hurt themselves, hurting her._

"I know, I know," Hange replied. "This isn't easy, you know. Too small a blast and she'll still be trapped, too much and we might blow off too much of her body. We still don't know how easy or difficult it is to kill a Titan shifter in human form," she replied.

"That's your fault for not allowing us to experiment. The City would be a hell of a lot safer if Yeager was in our custody, not yours," Dok complained.

Armin was thankful the Commander had insisted Mikasa and Eren stay hidden outside, with Jean. It would be just like the MPs to make a power play while they were distracted.

"OK, everyone. Back to the walls, behind those trestle tables we set up as shrapnel barriers. I'm ready to light the fuses, and this is about to get messy!" Hange crowed gleefully.

The rest of them moved behind the solid oak tables, which had been laid on their sides, table surface outwards, legs inwards, braced against the wall, all along the perimeter of the room. There were tables at each of the four corners of the room to protect their archers as well. Armin and Connie got behind their assigned table. Once they were all safely behind the tables, Hange lit the fuses, and then ran, heading for her own barrier, yelling, "Heads down, take cover!"

Armin complied, covering his head with his arms as they'd been instructed by Hange earlier, hearing rather than seeing Hange leap behind her own barricade.

Tense seconds passed with nothing happening, and then suddenly there was a tremendous explosion, and almost simultaneously, within seconds of one another, half a dozen others just as loud. Then, eerily, there was only silence, and an acrid smoky smell.

"That's all of them, seven charges. You can get up now," Hange confirmed, and Armin rose along with everyone else, and they emerged from behind the tables. "Shit, look at the tabletops. It's a good thing they're solid," Hange commented.

Armin turned to look at their own and his eyes widened and he swallowed hard. Knife sharp crystal shards were deeply imbedded in the wood all along the surface.

"Holy shit, it worked!" Hange cried.

Armin turned and saw that the smoke and crystal dust was clearing. Just as they'd planned, Annie had been partially freed. Her legs were still encased and bound together in crystal, except for her right foot, and her hands were still covered, and halfway up her forearms, but her upper arms were free, and her chest, except for her left breast. _Had the crystal been thicker over her heart, or stronger, to protect it?_ Her throat was uncovered and part of her head; there was a thin sheet of crackled crystal still on her forehead, but her eyes were clear of it. Her nose, mouth and chin, however, were still encased, though there were dozens of cracks in the formerly impenetrable material. Her exposed clothing and skin was burnt and blistered by the blast, the rest of her strangely pristine under the semi-intact remains of her crystal cocoon.

Then Annie's formerly motionless eyes blinked and Armin's heart raced. _She's awake! _

She had to be in pain, from the burns. He expected the rest of the crystal to fall away, or worse, for her to shift and it to explode everywhere, for razor sharp shrapnel to flay them all, now that they were out from behind their defenses. What he didn't expect was to see the dazed look in Annie's pale blue eyes change to confusion and then to panic, as her chest convulsed, and her face rapidly turned red.

Realization hit Armin with the force and suddenness of a Titan's hand. "She can't breathe!"

In that moment Armin forgot she was their prisoner, that she was a murderer, a traitor. She was dying before his eyes and he had to save her. He ran to her, heedless of the warnings being yelled of the potential danger, if she was faking, if it was a trap. No one could fake what he was seeing.

As soon as he reached her, he began tearing at the fractured crystal still surrounding her nose and mouth with his bare hands, working his fingertips under the shattered edges, pressing into the warm softness of her cheeks as the razor edges of the crystal sliced his fingers, pulling and prying at the once protective cocoon that was now killing her. But only tiny, crumbling shards and splinters pulled free, the integrity of the cracked crystal still too strong. "Help me! She's dying!" he cried desperately.

Powerful arms wrapped around him from behind and yanked him away from her.

"No! Let go! She can't breathe!" Armin kicked and struggled, almost breaking free, but then a second set of arms wrapped around his legs and he was wrestled to the ground, as he strained to reach Annie, even as he saw Levi leap at her, a prybar snatched off the torturer's bench upraised, hatred and determination burning in his eyes.

"Stop!" Armin screamed as Levi attacked the trapped and defenseless girl, the bar viciously bashing into the left side of her face again and again as Armin watched, helpless to save her, as Levi took his revenge on Annie for her murdering his Squad.

_Why isn't Commander Erwin stopping him?_ Armin looked around wildly for Erwin, only to see his face a foot above his own.

"Calm down, Arlert." Erwin commanded sternly. "Levi's trying to free her".

Armin realized it was Erwin's chest he was pressed against, his arms around him, that he was the one he'd been fighting, and saw that Hange was wrapped around his legs. His eyes flew back to Annie in disbelief, but the prybar was now wedged under the edge where Armin's fingers had been, and Armin saw that the spiderweb of fractures was much larger and more pronounced now, from Levi's blows, as his left foot braced on the mass of crystal still encasing her left breast. Levi's lean muscles bulged as he pulled upwards and then pushed downwards with the entire powerful force of his deceptively slender body. And suddenly the sheet of crystal that had been encasing Annie's nose, mouth and chin ripped away, and Levi crashed forward, his face slamming into the stone floor of the prison cell.

"Levi!" two voices cried in chorus to Armin's own, as the heartbeat pressed against Armin's ear thundered and then was gone, along with the arms as Erwin released Armin, leapt to his feet, and raced for Levi, who lay where he'd fallen, in a crumpled heap. The arms around Armin's legs vanished almost simultaneously, as Hange rushed over to the three of them.

Armin stumbled to his feet, joining the four of them. Annie's eyes were wide open, but she wasn't moving, even though the end of the bar had ripped through her left cheek, leaving a pool of blood in its wake. Terrible as the injury was, Armin felt relief seeing her face. He'd been afraid her jaw might have been ripped off. But then he realized her eyes were vacant and unseeing, and he cried out in denial. "No! She can't be!" _She can't be dead!_

"Levi's breathing. Hange, check Leonhart," Erwin ordered, fear and fury in his voice.

Hange turned and felt for a pulse at Annie's throat and then listened for a heartbeat next to the crystal over her left breast and cursed. "Damn it! No you don't, you bitch! Not until you answer our questions," Hange snapped angrily, and then she started kissing Annie.

Armin stared in stunned denial, as the image reprocessed: not kissing, resuscitating. He watched, transfixed, as Hange fought to save Annie.

Hange's face rose, her lips and chin smeared with Annie's blood, as she began chest compressions. "Is he conscious?" Hange demanded, looking towards Levi.

"Tch. It takes more than a floor to crack my skull," Levi replied to Armin's relief, as he sat up, his hand pressed to his forehead, Erwin's arms still protectively encircling him. "Fuck, Shitty Glasses, you look like a Titan," Levi complained, seeing Hange's bloody face.

She grimaced and wiped her mouth off on the shoulder of her uniform, not breaking the life-giving rhythm of her hands.

In the next moment Annie started gasping, and the tension in the room skyrocketed.

"Back to positions, be ready for anything," Erwin ordered, yanking Levi to his feet and into his arms and drawing back towards the trestle tables and the wall, Hange trailing them.

"Put me down, you ass!" Levi snarled.

Armin backed too, but only halfway to the wall, ready to slam on his gas, launch his grapples and pull himself to safety if Annie attacked him.

Her eyes widened as she fought to sit, the crystal still encasing and joining her legs making it difficult, as her crystal encrusted left had went to her wounded cheek. Her eyes widened in shock seeing her left hand, her right arm lifting clumsily and clacking against it, with an odd almost musical, humming tone.

"It's alright now, Annie," Armin called to her. "I'm sorry about your cheek, but the crystal was smothering you and we had to smash it and pry it off your face. You asphyxiated, you weren't breathing, but Hange resuscitated you," Armin soothed.

The confusion in her eyes turned to horror, as she turned to him. "Armin!" His name sounded odd, distorted, as air bubbled through her torn cheek. She yanked her hands down and pulled them behind her back, as if trying to hide them from him.

Her actions were reassuring, and Armin began to approach her, as he'd been instructed back at the Garrison base, slowly and carefully. It was his job to make her talk.

"We know you're the Female Titan, Annie. We saw you shift, remember? You tried to kill us, and you and Eren fought, and we kept you from climbing the Wall, from escaping. We captured you, and then you used your special shifter power to cover your whole body in crystal, the way you harden your hand or neck to protect yourself, when you're a Titan."

Armin was astonished how level his voice sounded, as he came right up to her, considering how hard his heart was pounding. She looked so vulnerable and helpless, but he knew she was anything but, that she could transform and kill him with terrifying ease, if the building didn't crush her. She could kill him just as easily as a human, using her hand to hand skills, even with her legs trapped. He made sure to stay out of arm's reach.

She tore her gaze away from him and looked around at all the angry faces surrounding her and then back at him. "How long?"

"I'm sorry but you don't get to ask the questions, Annie. You're our prisoner. We're the ones asking the questions. Who are the other Titan shifters? We already know about Reiner being the Armored Titan and Bertolt being the Colossal Titan, but we need you to name the others," he said calmly, as his heart raced.

Her eyes widened in disbelief and shock and then suddenly all the life left them. They had that same horrible, vacant look Mikasa's eyes had, when she thought Eren was dead. _Shit. _He knew he was supposed to tell her they were dead, so she'd think her situation that much more hopeless, but he knew Annie. She still had a heart, she still cared, even if she was a Titan and a murderer.

"They're not dead! We captured them, too, but they're not dead," he insisted, lying about their capture and ignoring the curses around him as he didn't follow the plan. "That's why we need you to talk, why I need you to. They want to kill them, Annie, for what they did, for taking down the Walls, for causing all those deaths. I tried to tell everyone that Reiner must have had a reason for what he did. Why would he have helped me graduate, and protected me, and he and you and Bertolt have helped us in Trost and those other times, unless you had a reason?

"I know you're being forced or blackmailed or coerced, or maybe someone hurt you, that this was all for revenge, somehow, but Reiner and Bertolt won't talk, and they're going to die, and I don't… I don't want anyone else to die!" Armin begged, half his words lies, the last word a sob, tears in his eyes, real ones, because even after all the horrible things they'd done, it was true. He'd thought he wanted her dead, but then she hadn't been breathing and he couldn't help but try to save her.

She deserved to die, he knew that, he thought so too, but his heart didn't agree. They'd already lost so many friends, and in spite of everything, the three of them had been their friends: they'd eaten and talked and trained together.

"Don't cry, Armin. Not for me. I hate it when you're weak like that," Annie scolded.

He was ashamed, until he saw how bright her own eyes looked.

He sniffed and wiped his eyes with his hand, and her eyes widened. "You're bleeding!"

He frowned puzzled, until his eyes fell on his hand and widened in surprise. Suddenly his hand began burning fiercely, the salt of his tears and the sight of his cut fingers making the pain register, not only in the one hand, but in both, as he looked at the other one. "I was trying to pull the crystal off your nose and mouth, and I guess I cut myself," he admitted.

Her eyes widened in horror, far out of proportion with his injury. "You touched my face?"

"Well, yeah, I…" Armin began, perplexed by her reaction. He knew she didn't like people touching her, but she'd sparred with Eren and Reiner, and there must have been plenty of other times people touched her, while training. _Or is it just her face she doesn't want touched? Why?_

She slammed both crystal encrusted hands down onto the stone floor, causing sparks to arc up from the impact of the crystal against the rock, as Armin yelped and fell back. "You **idiot**! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. You should have just let me kill you," she whispered, her voice sounding completely desolate, broken, lost.

"Armin, get back!" Levi ordered.

"No, wait, don't!" Armin yelled, as he looked over at him and realized the bows were raised, the fuses on the dynamite were lit, and they were about to fire.

_Why was she so upset, not violent, in spite of how it appeared to the others, but completely distraught? Her face… the blood!_ Armin flung himself forward onto her as understanding flared, wrapping himself around her, with his arms and legs, trying to cover every centimeter he could, protecting her, but keeping his cut hands away from her wounds, on his own opposite forearms, as he embraced her, even as she began thrashing wildly. "Annie, stop struggling, or they'll kill you! I understand!" He yelled out louder, "Everyone stop! You can't! She wasn't attacking me, and she's not healing! You'll kill her, and you'll doom the rest of us!" he yelled.

"Stand down! Pull your fuses!" Erwin ordered over the pounding of Armin's heart.

_Thank God Hange taught them all what to do, how to stop the dynamite from exploding, after the fuses were lit._

"It's alright, Annie. I didn't get any of your blood on my hands, before or now. My hands weren't cut yet, when I touched you at first, your cheek wasn't, and I was careful just now. That's it, isn't it? You didn't want my blood to mix with yours, because… because that's how you turn someone into a Titan shifter, isn't it?" he stated, the words leaving him momentarily breathless at his suspicion, his revelation. He inhaled shakily. "It's something in your blood, a bacteria or a virus or something, isn't it? Is that what happened to you? Were you and a Titan both wounded?"

"Let go." The words were more a plea than a command.

"Alright." First he squeezed her more tightly, turning his embrace into a true hug. "Thank you for trying to protect me," he whispered back, before releasing her. "But being a Titan wouldn't make me a monster, Annie. It didn't make Eren one. What you did, killing all those soldiers, enjoying killing them, that's what made you a monster."

She exhaled heavily, shaking her head. "I was a monster long before that. We're all monsters. Being human makes us monsters." Her voice was dead, dull, horrible to hear.

"Why do you think that?" Armin prodded.

"I know it. Because it's true. You're still so damned innocent. You have no idea the monsters humans really are," she said, sounding both incredibly weary and disgusted.

"I'm not, Annie. Not anymore. I'll answer your question, from before. You've been here a while. Long enough for me to see human monsters. Not Titan shifters, but ones just as bad: cruel, horrible people who enjoy hurting others, killing them. I butchered them, like the animals they were. I stabbed and cut them, and I didn't feel anything but satisfaction. I killed ten men."

Her head jerked to face him and she stared in shock and disbelief into his eyes.

Armin continued with brutal honesty, reliving the attack. "I was covered in their blood. Some of the men I killed were already injured and helpless. One of them ran from me screaming, looking at me like I was a Titan, and I shot a grapple into his back and ripped out his ribs and lung. I even tortured one, for a few seconds, before I killed him. He was begging for his life, begging me not to kill him, and I told him he was nothing but a rotting piece of meat and then I beheaded him, so fast that his lips were still moving, his head was still trying to talk. So don't think I don't understand that men can be monsters."

Armin heard more than one soldier gasp at his blunt description of what he'd done. But the men he had killed had undoubtedly done worse: they were monsters in need of slaying. He knew that, it was how he still slept at night. But for that one moment, in spite of what he'd said and thought about it before, he'd been a monster too. And he had to live with that.

Her eyes had widened and he'd met them unflinchingly. He saw the shock and disbelief in her eyes turn into belief, and finally, regret, the brightness of them dimming. Or maybe that part was just in his head.

"But none of us are born that way, Annie. Humans are taught to be cruel, by others being cruel to them, by scrabbling in the dirt for food, by stronger people beating and bullying them, instead of protecting them. Children are born innocent. It's the world that makes them cruel. But it's our job to protect them from that. Just like it's a soldier's job to protect civilians.

"You and Reiner and Bertolt might not have been soldiers before Shiganshina, but you were before Trost. You betrayed the military you swore an oath to. You betrayed your comrades, men and women who would have died to save you. But worst, you betrayed the civilians you swore to protect, men and women and children. You killed children, Annie, in Stohess. Maybe you felt justified killing soldiers, because we were a threat to you. But you betrayed and killed _children._"

"They killed me first," she muttered.

"Who are you Annie? Why are you like this? A Titan shifter? Someone this full of hate? Who hurt you?" Armin asked.

Armin shivered at the look in her eyes. There was something… inhuman in them, or perhaps just insane, as she smirked, and then all expression left her face as her spine straightened absurdly, as she snapped to attention. "Leonhart, Annabelle Jasmine, Major, United States Marine Corps, Serial Number… tch. Who the fuck cares? Those assholes are all dead, and it's not like any of you primitive backwater idiots would know what the Geneva Convention is." She looked around at the others.

"I'm impressed by the dynamite, though. That's how you blasted me out, right? I see the bows, the sticks at your feet, Sasha. That must have been you, right, Hange? Hey, Levi. Long time no see. How's it feel to be the last man standing? Of course, you're so short, you look like you're on your knees. Or maybe you are, finally getting to suck Commander Erwin's cock like you always wanted to? Shame on you. Can you imagine how little Petra is going to cry when… oh, that's right. She can't, can she? Someone smashed her pretty little face into a tree. She screamed before she died, you know. She begged for you to come save her. 'Levi! Help me!'" Annie cried, in a falsetto.

And then suddenly, before Armin or anyone else could react, Levi was there; he launched a grapple into the opposite wall and flew across the room to them in a blur of movement. His right hand dug into her hair, and he yanked her head back, exposing her throat, his left holding a bared knife to the curve of it, not a survival knife, but something smaller, that seemed somehow deadlier.

Armin expected to see the knife slash across her throat, but it didn't.

Instead, Levi whispered into her ear, as he held her immobile. "This is what you want, isn't it, you crazy bitch? An easy out, a quick kill? Well you're not going to get it. I'm going to kill you, but I'm going to take my time doing it. What you did to my Squad is child's play. I learned from a fucking expert. I'm going to cut you apart, a piece at a time. I'm going to start on your nails, and then cut off every separate joint of every single finger and toe. I'm going to skin you, pare you like an apple. Do you know how many meters of skin are on your forearm, if you make the strip three millimeters wide? You bastards think you know how to have fun? Have you ever made someone scream so long and loud they tear their vocal chords? I'm going to keep you alive one day for every soldier in the Corps you killed, bitch. And I'm going to let Reiner and Bertolt watch, so they know what they're going to get."

In reply, Annie spit out a mouthful of blood, trying to hit Levi in the face, but he jerked his head out of the way and then yanked the knife away and slammed her face forward into the floor in retaliation. Sparks arced out from the crackled crystal shards covering her forehead.

"Stop it, Captain Levi!" Armin yelled, concealing how close they now were by using his title, not only his name. "Something's wrong. She's not healing, and she hasn't shed the rest of the crystal. You said it yourself: she's scared and is trying to provoke you into killing her. But she's more valuable to the Corps alive than dead."

He called out more loudly, over his shoulder, "Commander Erwin, you told me if she cooperated, if she told us everything we needed to know, we'd let her live, that you'd seek leniency for her," Armin lied, winging it. Levi had shown remarkable restraint so far, in light of what she'd said and done. But no one else could have heard those whispered words. He was terrified Levi might actually do exactly what he'd threatened, if she continued to taunt him, that with everything he'd been through in the past weeks, he might actually break, and turn into that horrific monster he'd just described.

"Levi, you'll get your turn if Arlert fails to produce results. For now, Arlert is in charge of the interrogation," Erwin ordered, backing his play.

Armin hadn't expected Annie to almost die, or to be so complacent at first, so caring, and certainly not to be so callous, or insane. He wasn't sure what was real, and what was an act. _Is she really crazy, or just hoping we'll believe she is?_ He pulled her up so she was sitting again. She didn't try to resist, or help him either.

"Annie, what you said before didn't make any sense. What's the Geneva Convention? And the United States? You said Marine Corps, but there's only the Survey Corps. And the Garrison has Majors, but the Corps doesn't. We're too small for a rank between Captain and Commander," Armin coaxed, hoping tossing some of her own words back at her would encourage her to talk.

She stayed silent, staring straight ahead, the crystal on her forehead more fractured and a bit dulled from the powdered stone of the floor sticking to it. Her cheek still looked the same, still bleeding, though slightly more sluggishly.

"Squad Leader Hange, can you tend the wound on her cheek? It would make it easier for her to talk. And maybe give her some water, if she can drink it? She was trapped in that crystal for a long time, she must be thirsty," Armin encouraged, hoping the small kindnesses might weaken her stoic resolve, or spark a little humanity to reemerge.

He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up. This was nothing like what he'd expected, what he'd hoped. He'd thought she'd either attack him or talk, not this bizarre in between. He didn't feel like he was getting anywhere, but the Commander hadn't taken over, or had someone else do it, so maybe he thought he was doing alright.

Hange brought over a medical kit, pulled on gloves, and began treating her injury, swabbing away the blood with an antiseptic soaked pad. "I'm going to have to stitch it."

"No anesthetic," Levi snarled.

"Only a local one. She'll still be able to talk," Hange promised.

"None. She deserves a hell of a lot more pain than she's getting," Levi replied acidly.

"Local anesthetic, if it won't impair her speech," Erwin overrode Levi's protest.

She didn't react to anything they said.

"She's either become catatonic or is just pretending to be. She might have received some sort of anti-interrogation training and is just now implementing it. She might have been toying with us before, trying to illicit reactions and learn information from us," Hange commented clinically. "You didn't hit her head that hard, with the crystal to protect it, so if this is real and not purposefully self-induced, I'd say it's either from the trauma of waking, or the interrogation, or just her memories of her capture."

_Was it what Levi said to her?_ Armin didn't think so. She'd spat at him after that, so she was still lucid then. He thought she was just unwilling to say more, to give away any useful information.

After the local anesthetic had time to take effect, Hange thoroughly cleaned her wound and stitched her cheek. If she was human, and not a Titan shifter, she'd have a long, ugly scar once it healed. _Will keeping her from the sun make her heal like a human and not a Titan shifter? Unable to regenerate?_

Armin continued to try to question Annie as Hange cleaned, treated and bandaged her burns as well, and then managed to get her to drink some water, though most of it just dribbled down her face.

Once Hange was done treating Annie, she removed her gloves, washed her hands in antiseptic, and then put on a new pair. "Let me see your hands, Armin."

Surprised, he held them out to her. She tsked over his injuries and disinfected and then bandaged his fingers. As she worked, he continued to question Annie, to no avail. Then Hange went back to her position along the wall.

They kept at the questioning for hours, but Annie remained completely unresponsive, even after Erwin took over from Armin, and then, finally Levi. They were reluctant to free either of her hands from the crystal, but her right foot had been exposed from the initial blasts of the dynamite. Levi flat out told her he was going to start torturing her, just like he'd promised. Then he sliced off her boot with a combat knife and then asked Hange to hand him a pair of pliers off the bench, so he could tear out her toenails.

Armin looked from Levi to Erwin and then Hange in disbelief_. Surely they're not really going to torture her? Could Levi really do something so horrible?_

To Armin's relief, Hange refused. But his relief was short lived, as Hange walked over to the bench and lifted the pliers up, and then approached them. Hange grasped Levi by the shoulder and said, "I'll do it. I'm the expert at torturing Titans, remember?"

Levi tried to argue the point, but she whispered something into Levi's ear, and he stiffened, glanced at Erwin, and then nodded, and drew back.

_Hange isn't really going to…? _

Armin watched breathlessly as Hange spoke. "Last chance, Leonhart. Snap out of it, or I'm going to start ripping out your toenails."

Hange stared into Annie's eyes, but there was no reaction.

"Alright then." Hange fastened the pliers onto the edge of the nail of her big toe. "This little piggy went to market," Hange said, and without further warning, yanked.

Armin flinched and gagged, sealing his hands over his mouth in horror, forcing himself not to vomit as Hange held her bloody trophy in front of Annie's face with a wild gleam in her eye. Annie didn't react at all, to the pain or the sight, although it sounded like half the men in the room were retching, and more than one had yelped.

"OK then. Round two. This little piggy stayed home." She yanked again, and showed her the second nail, and Armin heard a number of people vomit this time, and he joined them. His view was far better than theirs, more graphic.

"There are 18 more where that came from, if I play with your toes and fingers. And then there's your fingers and toes themselves, too. Not to mention, your nose and ears and eyes. I'd be worried if I was you. You don't seem to be regenerating, and I can keep this up all day. Maybe two or three. I wouldn't want to rush this. Why did you tear down the Walls? And why did you stop at one Wall, instead of destroying all three?"

Annie did nothing but blink, once.

"Fine. Round three. This little piggy had roast beef," Hange said, yanking on the final word, holding it up in front of her. "Nice and bloody, just like this. Just like those soldiers you ate. Don't I look tasty? Why don't you try and take a bite?" Hange taunted.

"No? Alright then," Hange said, reaching for the fourth nail, as Armin's stomach rebelled, sending him into a fit of dry heaves.

"Hange, that's enough. We're done here," Erwin ordered.

Hange exhaled heavily, whether in relief or disappointment, Armin wasn't sure. He didn't want to know. He'd liked Hange, he'd thought she was a little crazy but harmless, and surprisingly sweet, but now…

Then Hange's eyes locked with Levi's, and he knew the truth, he understood. She'd done it for Levi, to protect him, not only from having to do something that horrible, but so that everyone, especially Erwin, wouldn't see Levi as some kind of inhuman monster, something worse than a Titan, like he'd been accused of being, when he first entered the Corps, after living in the Underground.

But the interrogation had all been for nothing. They'd only succeeded in wasting time, giving Reiner and Bertolt a greater chance to attack or sabotage them somehow. And worse, they'd actually managed to free Annie and wake her. She'd have to be guarded extremely carefully now, or killed. And they weren't even sure what would kill a Titan Shifter, in human form. Although chopping her up into tiny pieces would likely work. The thought made his stomach rebel worse.

"We can't leave her here. We need to kill her. You kill anyone who is a danger to you. Never leave live enemies," Levi said coldly.

"You can't," Armin argued, not willing to let Erwin and Levi alone decide her fate, not when Erwin was in love with Levi and Levi hated Annie for killing his Squad.

Help came from the last person he expected.

"That's not your decision to make, Scout. This prisoner is in the custody of the Military Police. You failed, but we'll get her to talk," Dok claimed arrogantly.

Dok had intentionally insulted Levi, by referring to him as a Scout, instead of by his rank as an officer, though Armin was certain Dok would say he merely did so to point out the branch of the military he was from. He'd only met Dok once, but he had a pretty good measure of the man, and he didn't like what he knew.

Armin quickly headed for Levi and Erwin. He knew Levi wanted Annie dead, and Armin didn't blame him, but he argued quietly against it, if for no other reason, than to have her as a bargaining chip to use against Reiner and Bertolt. He reminded Erwin that if Hange's vengeance theory was true, and there were other Titan shifters out there, the other shifters might not forgive humanity for killing her.

He wasn't certain whether it was that argument that swayed Erwin, or whether he had his own reasons, but Erwin supported Dok's pronouncement. Erwin recommended to Dok that she be kept confined, here, out of the sunlight, with archers and dynamite at the ready, once Hange confirmed she thought that was why she wasn't healing, that she maybe couldn't shed the remaining crystal and hadn't shifted because she didn't have the energy to. Hange proposed the theory that maybe that was even why she was catatonic, since the Titans seemed to quiet and become far more docile and less threatening at night, with rare exceptions, all of them abnormals. Of course, Titan shifters were abnormal, in a sense, so she wasn't sure.

Erwin suggested the other prisoners in the building be moved to a separate location, that the building be evacuated save for Annie and her guards. He recommended that they increase the number of guards, in case the other Titan shifters came to free her, not only Reiner and Bertolt, but others that might be out there that they had yet to learn the identifies of. They left a few packs of dynamite with Pixis's men, recommending they assist the Military Police in guarding her. And then they headed outside.


	18. Chapter 18 - Family and Connections

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 18 – Family and Connections

Jean jumped when he heard the muffled explosion come from the Military Police prison across the street, below them, even though he knew to expect it. _Shit, that was loud!_

From his rooftop vantage point he saw the nearby civilians looking around or freezing and staring at the building in shock, some running towards it, either out of dangerous curiosity or a genuine urge to help, and others running from it in self preservation or panic. The MPs who were positioned around the building in case the worst happened, and Annie broke free, began reassuring the civilians that everything was fine, though more than a few looked less than convinced themselves. Jean scanned the building anxiously, but it still looked structurally intact, and Annie didn't explode up out of it as the Female Titan either, which was a good sign, right?

He hated this. He hated being on the outside looking in, especially since Armin, Sasha and Connie were all inside. Armin, of all people, was the one questioning Annie, Sasha was at the ready to shoot her with dynamite, and Connie couldn't even freaking walk. They were all in incredible danger.

"Jean, stop looking like that, like the world's going to end at any moment. You're making Eren tense," Mikasa scolded.

Jean bit back the instinctual scathing remark about Eren. As the commanding officer pro tem, it was his job to reassure his men, and Eren had to be as worried about Armin as he was. Plus, Eren had genuinely liked Annie. In fact, out of all of them, he had probably been the closest to her. Well, except for Reiner and Bertolt, obviously. She and Reiner had definitely been working together, when Reiner carved that message into her hand and told her where to find Eren.

_How can Eren still care about her, after she kicked the shit out of him and kidnapped him? What the hell did she want with Eren, anyway? Just because he's a shifter like they are doesn't mean he'd ever work with them. He hates Titans. Had they planned to brainwash him or something?_

"Sorry, Eren, Mikasa. I'm still new at this," Jean apologized. "Marco told me my strength as a commander was the fact that I was just as scared as everyone else, but I guess it's not a good thing to show that all the time. I mean, I know even Commander Erwin and Captain Levi are afraid sometimes, but they almost never let the rest of us see that.

"You'd think it would be easier being in command when the men under you aren't the ones directly in danger, like they were when Erwin put me in charge of the scouting mission to investigate what those vultures were circling, but it's actually harder to be on the sidelines like this. I keep thinking we should be in there, helping protect our friends. But we have our own mission, if everything goes south on theirs."

"What, so you're just going to write off Armin and Sasha and Connie that easily?" Eren demanded. "Annie tried to kill Armin, Jean. Not just me and Mikasa, but him too. He shouldn't be in there! Why can't Levi or Erwin question her? What if she breaks free and shifts and attacks them? She could kill all of them! All our friends! Don't you care?"

"Calm down, damn it! Do you want the Military Police to hear you? If they catch us up here, both you and Mikasa are going to be arrested, and I may have a copy of that map Armin drew of how to get to your house, but unlike the rest of you, I'm not from Shiganshina. It would be too damned easy to get lost, especially since there's no idea how many more buildings the Titans have been knocking down all this time. That would just leave Armin to lead us there. And frankly, without your support, Eren, I don't think we can make it. Hell, even with you, the chances of the eleven of us surviving, especially now that Connie and I are injured, in addition to Levi and Armin, and who knows who else during the interrogation and…

"Shit. And that's not helping calm you down, is it? What the hell was the Commander thinking, put me in command?" Jean asked, feeling as freaked out and as out of his depth as he'd been when he led the gas run in Trost.

"Stop that. Honestly, you're as bad as Armin, Jean, when it comes to self-confidence," Mikasa chastised. "Stop selling yourself short. You proved yourself in training, graduating in the top ten, and you've proven yourself since then. I almost got everyone killed in Trost, heading for the supply building on that gas run. You and Armin are the ones who saved everyone.

"And Eren, you know the Commander made the right decision. Armin is the one Annie is most likely to respond to, if she responds to anyone. I seriously doubt torture would work on her. She's just so cold, so driven. We have so many questions we need answered, but I doubt she'll answer any of them."

"Yeah. You're right, Mikasa. I'm sorry I'm making your job harder, Jean," Eren unexpectedly apologized, the wild look disappearing, changing into that familiar intensity of his. "Look, why don't you pull out that map? Mikasa and I will go over it with you, so you have a better idea of what the town looks like. You've got a good memory –you always did well on those written tests they gave us, and the classwork. You've got a pencil with you, so you can take notes. We'll give you as many landmarks as we can, so that way, you'll know as much as we can tell you about it, and it'll make the time pass faster while we're stuck up here."

"Yeah, that would help a lot. Thanks Eren. That's a great idea. As long as we keep aware of our surroundings. We don't want anyone sneaking up on us up here, either the Military Police or Reiner or Bertolt, or any of those bastards who are trying to kill us. Although we're still wearing the Garrison cloaks at least, so we should be less conspicuous, less of a target."

0 0 0

Mikasa stared at the Military Police prison, wishing she knew what was happening inside. _It's been hours. Does that mean they're learning all kinds of things, or that Annie hasn't said a word?_ They'd shown Jean everything they could, and the three of them had talked about the plan to enter the city, and then about other things, trying to kill time and keep Eren calm, although he'd been showing a remarkable amount of patience. She was very proud of him. She knew waiting like this was anathema to Eren. He'd grown so…

"Behind us!" Mikasa yelled in warning, blading her swords as she spun, frowning as she saw nothing but empty rooftop, broken only by the stairwell entrance. _No one is there._ _Why did I…?_ She hadn't heard a footfall, or even a breath, it was more she had sensed a presence.

"What is it, what's wrong?" Eren demanded, his own swords bladed.

_The stairwell entrance!_ Mikasa slammed her gas on, launching both grapples, yanking herself towards the sole cover, painfully aware she was doing exactly what Jean had, that if it was a sniper, she would likely be shot, and might well die. She heard the sound of Eren and Jean following her.

She yanked open the door and… no one was there. She cursed and ran out, tearing around the left side of the tiled structure, Eren at her back, while Jean ran around the right, as if they'd rehearsed the maneuver dozens of times. They surrounded… nothing. No one.

"You have excellent instincts, my dear. But then, I would have expected nothing less," a smooth voice said from above them.

Eren and Jean cursed aloud as they looked up, her own curse silently joining theirs as the sun half blinded her. She launched both grapples at the figure, but he swung out of the line of fire, using maneuver gear of his own, which was significantly quieter than their gear.

"My, such hostility, when all I wish is to talk. Surely you realize you'd already have been dead, had I meant you harm?" the coolly confident voice scolded. He stood ten meters away, his hands empty and palms outwards at his sides, as if implying he was harmless, though he was clearly armed and blatantly dangerous.

Now that the sun wasn't blinding her, Mikasa could see that he was dressed in the uniform of the Military Police, his rank Captain, that he was wearing scabbards in addition to the 3D maneuver gear, and was in his 40s or 50s, with short straight black hair, dark eyes and a narrow face, whipcord lean, with none of the softness she normally equated with the MPs.

"Who are you? Why did you sneak up on us?" Eren demanded.

"He's not very bright, is he? After all, I just told you that I came to speak with you. I'd chastise you for your choice of lovers, Mikasa, but then, his power does have its uses, doesn't it? And there are so few Titan shifters within the Walls. Only five," the man chided. "Of course, if you decide to breed with him, your children would also be shifters, which would be an additional bonus to your relationship."

"That still doesn't answer who you are," Mikasa replied, refusing to let him rattle her by insulting Eren and speaking about her as if she was a draft animal. "You're dressed as a Military Police Captain, but anyone can steal a uniform and maneuver gear, though you seem to be remarkably proficient with it. Your gear is also more silent than ours. Did you modify it yourself, or is it a custom design?" Mikasa asked, eyeing him warily, ready to attack the moment he appeared remotely hostile.

"It appears Garrison uniforms are even easier to obtain, as you all are wearing their cloaks and jackets. Of course, I don't blame you for being ashamed to be seen in your Survey Corps uniforms, especially after that fiasco in Stohess. That was quite a death toll you racked up, Yeager. You're lucky you aren't chained in a cell next to Leonhart. It's a shame you all missed the show they were putting on inside, though their efforts sadly produced predictably little results. The Corps should really leave interrogation to the experts," the man stated, the tone of his voice making a chill run down Mikasa's spine.

"We want your name, and I want to know what you meant about five shifters inside the Walls. We only know of four, and you implied that there were more Outside the Walls," Jean demanded coolly.

_Damn it!_ He'd successfully rattled her after all. She hadn't caught either of those points.

The stranger eyed Jean with mild approval. "So, one of you was actually paying attention. Although really, Mikasa, I would have thought you would be the one to pick up on that breadcrumb I so thoughtfully dropped," he scolded.

"Why do you keep speaking to me so familiarly, as if you know me? I've never met you," Mikasa said coolly, hiding her frustration, refusing to be baited.

"Sadly, no, you haven't. Although that was Nate's decision, not mine. Personally, I've always cherished family, though for some reason, none of them seem to appreciate that," the man stated, mocking sorrow in his voice.

Her father's name had been Nathaniel. Her mother had always called him by his full name, but some of the people in the Market in Shiganshina used to call him Nate. _Did this man really know my father? Is he actually related to me? _"You're claiming to be my family? My family is dead. They were murdered," Mikasa stated coldly.

"Yes, sweetling, your father and mother were murdered, however your uncle and cousin are both alive and well. Of course, you have recently become quite close to your cousin, I've been told. But where are my manners? Permit me to introduce myself: Captain Kenny Ackerman, of the Military Police, Leader of the First Interior Squad, your esteemed uncle, and father to your Squad leader, Levi Ackerman," he said smoothly, with a slight bow and flourish.

_Levi's __**father**__? But he's an orphan and… Levi is my __**cousin**__? But why…_ Suddenly Levi's bitter, accusatory words from the road about Kenny Ackerman, during his fight with Erwin, came back to her. _"__You have to hit a lot harder, deeper and bloodier than that if you want to walk in that fucker's shoes. Kenny is a demon in human skin…"_ Erwin had told Levi he thought Kenny Ackerman was the most soulless, heartless, callous bastard Levi had ever met. And then when she asked him who Kenny Ackerman was, Levi had told her she didn't need to know about him, that he had nothing to do with her. Her uncle or not, in Levi's eyes, Ackerman was obviously incredibly dangerous.

"For someone who cherishes family, if you truly are my uncle, I would have thought you would have at least put in an appearance when I was orphaned at age nine, or offered to take me in when I was orphaned a second time and nearly starved to death as a refugee at age twelve. Armin and Eren are my family. You're nothing," Mikasa said glacially, her last two words purposefully biting, goading, to see how he would respond.

There was a flash of fury in his gunmetal gray eyes, though the rest of his face remained impassive. "I'd be a little more respectful, if I were you, my dear. After all, as you've seen, family is a fragile, fleeting thing."

"Are you actually threatening me to my face, you fucktard?" Eren snarled.

Ackerman turned his head to look Eren in the eye. "I'd watch what I say, boy. Unlike the rest of you, I know exactly what it takes to kill a Titan shifter in human form. One more disrespectful word from you, and I'd be more than happy to demonstrate the technique to your comrades, for the greater good, of course," Ackerman threatened.

"Yeager, Ackerman, stand down!" Jean ordered, stepping protectively in front of both of them, facing the Captain, but sheathing his blades, holding his hands open and at his sides. "Please forgive them for their disrespect, sir. I'll see that Yeager is appropriately disciplined. But you're actually unintentionally interfering with our mission. I'd appreciate it if you would visit with Scout Ackerman when she is off duty, sir," Jean suggested, his words and tone calm and respectful.

"What's your name?" Ackerman asked, sounding begrudgingly intrigued.

"Scout Jean Kirstein, sir. Scouts Ackerman and Yeager are under my command."

Mikasa could see that Jean was trying his best to diffuse the situation, which was rapidly spiraling out of control, but she was afraid he was only succeeding in setting himself in Ackerman's sites as a target. She never should have pushed the man, even with the little she knew about him. "Forgive me for putting you in an awkward position, Squad Leader Kirstein, sir, for you having to apologize for my inexcusable rudeness to an officer," she said to Jean. Then she turned her attention to Ackerman.

"My apologies, Uncle. I'm confidant you understand that mention of my parents is extremely painful for me. I'm sure my father's death was a great shock to you, and particularly painful for you as well, especially considering your estrangement. As you said, family is rare and precious. I would like to speak with you at length, sometime when I am not on duty, but as Squad Leader Kirstein stated, now is not the appropriate time. We are in the middle of a dangerous mission, sir. Also, I know it isn't sufficient excuse for my actions, but I personally am under a great deal of stress right now. I don't know whether you are aware of it, sir, but there is a bounty for my death, and there has already been an attempt on my life." She wasn't certain adding that last was a good idea or not. For all she knew it might only serve to make her his target, but she hoped it might help to mention it.

"Yes, I'm well aware. Frankly, the stupidity of the vast majority of the human race never ceases to astonish me," Ackerman said, that deadly tension, like a coiled snake ready to strike, easing. "I would have thought the vivid example of the deaths of the bounty office personnel would have been a clear enough message. Apparently there will still be some stragglers to mop up, here and there.

"You should be relieved to know, however, my dear, that the man responsible for financing that reward has been killed. His name was Edward Reeves, though he went by the nickname "Dimo". He had a personal grievance with you, and made the mistake of taking out a vendetta against you, believing his wealth and position would protect him from the consequences of such a rash action. Apparently he lost a large quantity of merchandise in a crushed wagon during the Battle of Trost, and he blamed you, personally, for the loss, for valuing the lives of the civilians you were sworn to protect more than his goods, when he was blocking the only exit from the City. I understand he also wanted revenge against you for threatening his life."

Mikasa's skin crawled hearing him say, "my dear" again, but it also was an indication that she had temporarily wormed her way back into his good graces. She doubted she was forgiven for her earlier comment, but at least for now it appeared that he wouldn't make her suffer for it. "So there weren't reward posters out for anyone else in the Corps? It was just for me?" she asked in relief.

"Yes. I would warn you that there are, however, a number of individuals in Stohess who blame the Corps for their losses during the battle between Leonhart and Yeager here. The Wings of Freedom make a vivid target. But you apparently realize that already, considering your current mode of dress," Ackerman stated.

"Yes sir. Our Squad was attacked by a sniper on the way to the Capital, but fortunately, we discovered him and stopped him in time," Jean risked saying.

Mikasa spun at the sound of maneuver gear coming from behind them, ready to face the new danger, and felt a surge of relief and then alarm when she realized it was Levi, when she saw his swords were in his hands and he was coming in fast and hard, in his signature spinning Titan killing move, aiming at Ackerman.

Astonishingly, Ackerman actually managed to parry the deadly double blow, with a jarring clang of metal on metal, and then half a dozen other strikes, even as the hum of additional maneuver gear grappling cables added to the sounds of battle, before Ackerman's left foot lashed out and he kicked Levi in his wounded thigh. All the color leeched from Levi's face as he shot out a grapple and pulled himself away from Ackerman, even as two figures flew between the combatants.

"Levi, stand down!" Erwin ordered, but facing Kenny Ackerman, sword grips in hand but not yet bladed.

"Ackerman, stand down! What's the meaning of this?" Commander Nile Dok demanded, facing his subordinate, fuming.

"My son was just saying hello to me, Nile. It's merely a game we play. You know how the little ones crave attention," Ackerman said mildly, as if Levi hadn't been trying to kill him.

"I'm not your son, you lying bastard! Stay the fuck away from my men," Levi snarled, looking no less deadly for the fact that he was balancing on one leg, his face laced with pain.

"Language, Levi. And such an inaccurate accusation, too. Unlike you, I was born in wedlock. But then, my mother wasn't a whore," Ackerman said with a gleeful smirk.

Erwin bodily restrained Levi from lunging at the man again. "Levi, damn it, stand down! That's an order!"

"Ackerman, your personal life is your own business, but when you're wearing that uniform, you will behave with the decorum expected of the Military Police," Dok reprimanded. "We don't have time for this foolishness. Leonhart had been released from her crystal cocoon. The Survey Corps has had their crack at her. I want you to lead our interrogation."

"Be aware, Captain Ackerman, that it's quite likely Reiner Braun, the Armored Titan, and Bertolt Hoover, the Colossal Titan, will seek revenge against anyone who harms Leonhart, and if the interrogation is taken to extremes, her death might well prove catastrophic to mankind's survival," Erwin cautioned.

"I am far more aware of the ramifications than you will ever be, Commander," Ackerman arrogantly claimed. Then he turned back to Mikasa. "My dear, it's truly been a pleasure. I look forward to continuing our conversation."

"I look forward to it as well, Uncle," Mikasa replied.

"You'll have plenty of opportunity for it. Mikasa Ackerman, you are under arrest as a material witness in the Numbers Slayings. I recommend you come quietly," Dok stated.

"Now, Nile, there's no need for that anymore. As I was just telling my dear niece, I was on my way to report to you that the person who put the bounty on Mikasa's head is dead and his motivation is quite straightforward. I'll give you a full report," Ackerman surprisingly stated. Mikasa would have thought he would have leapt at the chance to lock her up, particularly after Levi attacked him.

"You were the one who recommended we arrest her," Dok argued.

"Yes, of course, because I was seeking to protect Mikasa. But now that word will spread there can be no bounty, as the one offering it is dead, she should be safe from all but the most stupid and uninformed. And I understand she already successfully defended herself against one attempt upon her life, and that the Corps also already dealt with a sniper on the way here. I'm confident Mikasa can take care of herself, regardless of her Squad Leader's lack of competence or fitness for duty," Ackerman claimed, viciously scoring a verbal hit on Levi. Mikasa was certain Levi was seething, but she didn't want to take her eyes off of Ackerman.

"What about Yeager? I don't want a Titan shifter running around loose in the Capital, especially not after the last time it was allowed to roam free," Dok stated, infuriating Mikasa, though she refused to show it. He was completely dehumanizing Eren, calling him "it".

"Mikasa informed me that their Squad is about to embark on some important training and team building, part of which is to acclimate Yeager working underground. If there are any problems, the Lurkers will be the only potential casualties. Yeager is integral to that training. I recommend you allow him free rein to participate," Ackerman stated, to Mikasa's shock, not only for defending Eren, but for knowing not only the cover story of their mission, but also potentially their true mission, and for the blatant lie that she was the one who had told him. She could only imagine what Erwin and Levi were thinking of her right now.

"Very well. But it's on your head, if Ackerman is killed or Yeager goes berserk and rampages again," Dok stated, further enraging Mikasa. Eren didn't go berserk before – he'd protected everyone from the Female Titan.

"Or course. I'll accept full responsibility. Any blood will be on my hands, as well as theirs," Ackerman agreed.

"Good day to you, my dear. Kirstein, Yeager, Edward. Oh, forgive me. Slip of the tongue. I meant to say Erwin, of course," Ackerman said with a smirk directed at Erwin. Then he turned his back and headed for the roof edge, without acknowledging Levi's presence.

"See that you and your men stay out of trouble this time, Erwin," Dok barbed.

"See that you don't kill Leonhart, Nile, or you and everyone else might not live to regret it," Erwin jabbed back.

Dok scowled and headed for the roof edge, and he and Ackerman descended to the street.

"Kirstein, make sure they're really gone, out of earshot. Mikasa, don't believe a word that fucker told you," Levi demanded.

She turned to him and was concerned to see Erwin was still restraining him.

"They're gone. They just entered the prison," Kirstein confirmed.

"Good. Erwin, you can let go now," Levi said.

"If I let go you'll fall," Erwin argued.

"I know, but it doesn't matter, now that he's gone. I need to fucking sit, or I'm going to vomit," Levi snapped.

"Is it broken?" Erwin asked, his voice thick with concern, as he helped Levi to the stairwell wall, and to sit, as Levi's jaw gritted against the blatant pain.

"No. He just wanted to hurt and humiliate me, not disable or kill me."

"How can you be sure?" Erwin asked skeptically.

"Because I'm not fucking crippled or dead," Levi replied acidly, shocking Mikasa with the admission.

_Kenny Ackerman is a better fighter than Levi? Than Humanity's Strongest Soldier? Would he be even if Levi wasn't wounded?_

"But you tried to kill him," Erwin stated, looking Levi in the eyes.

"He was threatening my men," Levi justified. "Kirstein, Ackerman, Yeager, I need to hear everything that fucker said to you, everything he did, no matter how insignificant or off it sounded, how he approached you, everything, and every word you said back to him. Every word and step that man makes is calculated, in spite of what he'd have you believe. That fucker is as smart and devious as you, Erwin. And in spite of what he said, he doesn't make mistakes, ever. So after we debrief these brats, you and I are going to have a talk, **Edward**," Levi said acidly.

"Not here. We're already drawing too much attention. Back at the Garrison 3 base, where there's less chance of someone overhearing, and after you get that leg looked at," Erwin countermanded.

"Fine," Levi agreed, the single word filled with venom.

"Levi, you yourself said his every move is calculated. Please consider that he said what he did specifically to hurt you, to drive a wedge between us," Erwin said intently.

"If you're keeping secrets from me, he's not the one who's hurting me," Levi accused, as he levered himself to stand, his full weight on his left leg, pushing away Erwin's offered assistance.

Eren walked up to Levi, and without warning, put his arm around his waist.

"What the fuck, brat?" Levi demanded indignantly, though he didn't pull away.

"I know what getting kicked like that feels like, except I wasn't already injured like you were. I haven't done dick on this damned mission yet, and I know you can't walk. So use me as a crutch," Eren replied, making it sound like an order, but his earlier words cushioned the impact.

"Tch. Fine," Levi grumbled, wrapping his arm over Eren's shoulders, leaning heavily on him, keeping his weight entirely off his right leg.

They used their gear instead of the stairs to get down to street level, primarily because they would have had to carry Levi.

When they reached the street, the rest of their men swarmed around them.


	19. Chapter 19 - Analysis of a Madman

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
If you like these stories, you might also like my original published work, the four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, by Maria Albert, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 19 – Analysis of a Madman

Armin's heart was pounding. One minute they'd exited the building, and the next Levi had literally growled, and then roared in fury, "Stay here! I'll fucking kill anyone who follows me!" Then he'd shot upwards using his maneuver gear, to the rooftop of the building across the street, where Jean, Mikasa and Eren were. Armin saw there was someone else up there with them, it looked like he was in uniform, but he couldn't tell which branch he was from.

"Damn it, Levi! No one follow us!" Erwin ordered, and then he took off after Levi, followed a moment later by Commander Dok, as they began to hear the unmistakable sounds of clashing swords.

Armin wanted to follow, to disobey orders: Jean, Eren and Mikasa were up there, as well as Levi. But since he'd gotten to know Levi so well, he hadn't been afraid of him, until now. He'd looked as feral as a rabid wolf. Armin honestly thought Levi would attack and maybe even literally kill anyone who disobeyed his order, even him. It was like that time in his office, when Armin had made the mistake of trying to restrain him from going out to kill Jean and Connie. This time Levi might not stop himself in time, or not even want to stop.

Thankfully but ominously, the sounds of battle ceased almost immediately after Erwin and Dok reached the rooftop. Armin only hoped his friends were all still OK.

A few agonizing minutes later, Dok and the dark haired man from the roof came down, using their gear. The stranger surveyed the rest of them in a single sweeping but thorough glance, which didn't linger on any of them, as if he were assessing them in an instant. Armin felt goosebumps break out all over his skin and fought the urge to duck his head, to look down or away, not wanting to draw attention to himself, but careful not to meet the stranger's gaze or appear challenging either. "_Never run from something immortal – you'll draw attention to yourself_." The odd quote popped into Armin's head from nowhere, a subconscious warning matching his conscious thoughts. Bizarre as the thought was, he didn't dismiss it. Those eyes…. There was something – less than human – about those eyes.

Armin felt weak with relief when the man turned and entered the building with Dok, without a backwards glance, apparently dismissing them all as being unworthy of his notice or attention. Armin looked nervously up to the roof and bit his lip anxiously. _Why aren't the others coming down? Was someone wounded in that fight? Not… not killed? _Somewhat reassuringly, Armin realized there hadn't been any blood on Dok or that other man.

His question was answered when he saw Levi appear at the edge of the roof with Eren, their arms wrapped around one another. It was blatantly obvious that one of them needed help walking. There was a brief exchange, and then Eren let go of Levi, and used his gear to descend, landing easily. "Connie, before he gets here, do you think you can walk with Levi's cane instead, so he can have his crutches back?" Eren asked.

Connie scowled.

"Connie, it's really fucked up, you have no idea, please," Eren begged, the intensity of it alarming Armin, and he could see Sasha, Hange, Anders and Bauer looked just as concerned.

"Yeah, fine," Connie grumbled, thrusting the crutches at Eren, as he stood balanced on one foot, until Hange handed him Levi's cane. "But if he gets pissed at me, I'm throwing you to the wolves," Connie added.

Erwin, Levi and Mikasa descended, Erwin and Mikasa on either side of Levi, protectively, but Levi landed flawlessly on his left leg, and balanced on it. "Here, Captain," Eren said, thrusting the crutches at him.

Levi glared at Eren and then at Connie. "I made him give them to me. The faster you take them, the faster we can get away from here. Or do you want to give that fucktard another opening?" Eren challenged.

"Tch. You'd better hope he didn't just hear you call him that," Levi said, as he took the crutches, actually glancing at the building suspiciously.

"He already heard me call him that, on the roof," Eren responded.

Levi spun to face Eren, shock and horror in his gaze, his eyes riveted on Eren's face. "Shit. Fuck. Do you have any idea… of course you don't. Tell me exactly what he said and did after you said that," Levi demanded.

"He told me to watch my mouth, and that if I said anything else like that to him again, he'd kill me, and that unlike the rest of us, he knew exactly how to kill a Titan shifter in human form," Eren replied with a shrug.

"Everyone, we're moving out, now," Levi snapped. "Yeager, Ackerman and Kirstein, in the center, with everyone protecting them. Watch your backs, the fucking rooftops, everywhere. If anyone tries to get close to them, in or out of uniform, it's your job to take them out," Levi ordered, his eyes riveted to the prison, scanning every centimeter of the building. "I want all of us in and on a single carriage. Blouse, you're driving, with Springer on the bench beside you, and Anders up front with you, and Bauer, you're on the back as tiger. The rest of you, you're inside with me, including you, Erwin," Levi ordered.

Erwin raised an eyebrow but didn't protest Levi issuing an order to him. Without another word, Levi began heading for the carriage house at the opposite end of the block from the prison.

_Who __**was**__ that man? Is Levi really actually __**afraid **__of him? Would that man really kill Eren, just for calling him a name? And what did that mean, that he knows how to kill a Titan shifter in human form? How could he? What the hell happened on that roof?_

"Armin, what happened to your hands? Why are they bandaged?" Jean asked in concern.

"Oh. I, um, cut them on Annie's crystal. When we blew it off of her, it didn't exactly go according to plan. It was still over her mouth and nose and she couldn't breathe, she almost died, and I tried to tear it off. Levi ended up freeing her and Hange resuscitated her. It's nothing. I'm fine. Are you OK?" Armin asked, equally concerned.

"Yeah. But it got pretty crazy," Jean admitted, sounding shaky.

They trailed after Levi, heading to the carriage house with the others, and made it there without incident. Levi, Erwin, Hange, Jean, Eren, Mikasa and Armin all got in the carriage, which made it really cramped, especially because they had to be careful not to crowd Levi. As soon as the carriage was moving, and it turned out of the yard and onto the street, Levi drew the curtains and spoke.

"It's not safe to talk about this shit at the Garrison 3 base, or anywhere else, other than here, and I still wouldn't, if this wasn't such a clusterfuck already. None of you are to talk about anything said in this carriage with anyone, anywhere, ever," Levi said, looking from one to the other of them, a burning intensity in his eyes that was terrifying.

"I don't care how fucking safe you think you are, you won't be. Kenny Ackerman, that man that was on the roof, has spies everywhere and he's a fucking demon in human skin. If a single word of this conversation gets back to Ackerman, you are signing a death warrant for every single friend and family member you have.

"Erwin, I know you think I'm fucking blowing this out of proportion, that it's too personal for me, but there's a lot of shit I never told you about me, that I still won't tell you, but there's one big secret I'm going to tell you all right now, one I've known for years: Kenny Ackerman is the Numbers Killer. He has personally tortured and murdered over 150 people, 92 of them Military Police, by the official count, but there's at least two dozen bodies they never found, and he's killed dozens of civilians. And those are just the ritualistic slayings. He's killed plenty more people in the Underground, for things so trivial you wouldn't believe, a wrong look, a wrong word. You all need to fucking understand that Ackerman will torture and murder you and every person you care about if he ever hears a word of this conversation taking place," Levi swore. "Just saying his name is enough to fucking get you killed."

_The Numbers Killer? He tortured and killed… Oh my God. _What Levi had told Annie took on a horrific new meaning, as he remembered every chilling word:

"_This is what you want, isn't it, you crazy bitch? An easy out, a quick kill? Well you're not going to get it. I'm going to kill you, but I'm going to take my time at it. What you did to my Squad is child's play. I learned from a fucking expert. I'm going to cut you apart, a piece at a time. I'm going to start on your nails, and then cut off every separate joint of every single finger and toe. I'm going to skin you, pare you like an apple. Do you know how many meters of skin are on your forearm, if you make the strip three millimeters wide? You bastards think you know how to have fun? Have you ever made someone scream so long and loud they tear their vocal chords? I'm going to keep you alive one day for every soldier in the Corps you killed, bitch. And I'm going to let Reiner and Bertolt watch, so they know what they're going to get."_

Had Kenny Ackerman, the Numbers Killer, been the one to teach Levi how to torture people to death?Armin looked around and saw everyone was as stunned as he was, even Erwin and Hange, and none of them had heard what Levi said to Annie.

Mikasa was the first to speak. "Is he really my uncle? And your father?" she asked softly.

_**WHAT?**_

"No, Mikasa, he is **not** my fucking father. He had control of me for eleven years, from when I was seven until I finally got away from him at eighteen, but no matter what he claims, he was never biologically my father, or like a father in any way, shape or form, and that's all I'm going to say about it, ever. I wish I could tell you he's not your uncle either, but I don't know about that part of it. But I don't care what kind of head games he was playing with you, or how good he is at manipulating people. Before I debrief you in detail, I want to know how the fuck you could tell him about both our cover mission and our real mission. I thought you were smarter than that," Levi chastised scathingly.

_**WHAT? **__Why would Mikasa do that?_

"I didn't. I have no idea how he knew about them, or why he'd tell Commander Dok that I told him that, but I didn't say anything about that to him," Mikasa swore.

"She didn't. We were there, we heard everything they said to one another, and she never said that," Eren confirmed.

"If even half of the rest of what he said was true, he apparently knows a lot more about a lot of things than the rest of us do. The things he knew, that he was saying… I swear he has to have a spy on base," Jean agreed.

"Shit. Fuck. Alright, tell me everything, from the beginning, how he got there, what he said and did, your reactions, all of it. Every detail is vital. Your lives literally fucking depend on you telling me everything. That bastard is the single most dangerous human you will ever meet. If you think of him as an Aberrant Titan, you've got some idea of what he is capable of. You cannot ever predict his reaction to anything, because he is fucking certifiably insane.

"Hange, Armin, the only reason you're in here with us right now listening is because of your analytical minds. I need you to help me and Erwin figure out what he knows, how he could have learned it, and what his next move might be. I want you to analyze every word they repeat and every action they describe. I'm going to ask you afterwards about what you heard. But no taking notes. You can't write any of this down, so you need to listen carefully and remember every point.

"So Jean, Eren, Mikasa, how did he get on that roof with you, and what happened next? Even the smallest detail could save your life, or one of ours," Levi stated grimly.

Armin listened intently as the story unfolded, as they told everything, with Levi prodding and encouraging and demanding detail. Armin made a mental list of things as they spoke.

"Alright, Armin. You first. What did you hear, and what do you make of it?" Levi demanded.

_Drat_. Armin had thought Levi would ask Erwin or Hange first. He took a deep breath and spoke. "He actually said or did a lot that's important. I counted 23 points."

Armin saw Jean looked surprised and impressed, while Eren and Mikasa just nodded, like they expected him to say something like that. Erwin and Hange looked intrigued, and Levi said impatiently, "Go on, brat."

"OK. I'm going to do this by number, in the order Ackerman revealed things, to keep it straight in my head, since that's the way I memorized the facts, as I heard them:

1\. Ackerman has very quiet maneuver gear. If that's not normal for the First Interior Squad, then he either modified the gear himself or had someone else do it.

2\. He said he came to talk to Mikasa, so he recognized her and wanted to let her know about him, either because of his alleged relationship to her, or perhaps to goad you, Levi, if he learned you were close to her, maybe so you'd feel threatened, if you thought she was in danger. Sorry, Levi, but that kind of worked, since you went up there and attacked him.

3\. He somehow knows Mikasa and Eren are lovers. Since that's not common knowledge, he might have one or more spies on our base, or on the Garrison base we stayed at for those few hours, in Karanese, when you threw us out of the Corps, Levi.

4\. He said there were five Titan shifters within the Walls, instead of four, and implied more were Outside the Walls, which makes it sound like he might be in contact with them, perhaps even working with them.

5\. He told Mikasa breeding with a shifter means that the children would be shifters. If he isn't just guessing about that, then that bears out the previous point, that he knows the shifters and knows a lot more about them than we do.

6\. He was inside the building listening, during the interrogation of Annie, from what he said. I was highly focused on Annie while I was interrogating her, but after Levi and Hange took over, I didn't see him in the room, which means he was listening at the door, or through a hidden panel or something in a wall or the floor or ceiling, or he had a proxy inside, who told him what was said, possibly verbatim.

7\. He claimed to be an expert at interrogation. From what Levi told us, about him being the Numbers Killer, he's definitely an expert at torture, and torture is often used to interrogate people. Also, he knew exactly what buttons to push for both Levi and Erwin, which means he knows a lot about the way people think and react, about psychology, which is important for interrogations.

8\. He was impressed that Jean picked up his intentionally dropped information about the shifters, about there being five not four, and the implied information of the others, and he had expected Mikasa to catch that and was disappointed that she hadn't.

9\. He used pet names and endearments speaking to Mikasa, calling her "my dear" and "sweetling", and called her by her first name, as if they already had a close familial relationship, which is really disturbing. What's going on in his head is different from reality. Unless he just purposefully did that, to freak her and the rest of us out. But that's still worrisome.

10\. He knew Mikasa's father's name and claims to be her uncle, and Levi's father, and claims that Levi is therefore Mikasa's cousin.

11\. He threatened Mikasa's family after she insulted him, which again, considering what Levi told us about him being the Numbers Killer, murdering hundreds of people horribly like that, is terrifying. From the timing of what he said, he made it sound like Eren and I were in danger, but he might have meant Levi, too.

12\. He threatened to kill Eren in front of his comrades, as a demonstration of how to kill a shifter, claiming that unlike the rest of us, he knows how to kill one. If that's true, either someone has taught him that, or he learned how to do it. Again, it seems like he's in contact with the shifters, either as an ally or an enemy, and definitely knows more about them than we do.

13\. When Jean reprimanded Eren and Mikasa for being rude and disrespectful to Ackerman, Ackerman seemed begrudgingly intrigued and asked Jean his name. That was a brilliant move on Jean's part, diffusing the situation like that, by promising to punish Eren, but not risking saying anything about punishing Mikasa, since Ackerman claimed to be her uncle and appeared to care for her in a kind of twisted way. Like Jean said in his verbal report to us, Ackerman freaked him out, and struck him as dangerous, and he purposefully tried to draw attention away from Eren and Mikasa and to himself instead, in order to protect them. And it worked, but now Jean's brought himself to Ackerman's attention, and that could be dangerous for him, in the future, or dependent upon Ackerman's mental state, might possibly protect him, at sometime in the future, if Ackerman feels he can use someone like him. I don't think he might genuinely learn to like him, because from what I've heard, I don't think he likes anyone. I think he only uses people.

14\. He was aware of the bounty on Mikasa alone and that there were no others. Of course, now that we know he's the Numbers Killer, that makes sense, since he was the one who killed those men in the bounty offices. I don't know why he originally stopped killing people decades ago, but he started again to protect Mikasa, or at least, that's how he apparently saw his actions. It will be interesting to see if the killings continue, if he finds other excuses to continue killing, now that Mikasa's relatively safe, but he's tasted blood again.

15\. He warned Jean, Eren and Mikasa that others in Stohess might try to kill them, as Scouts, in revenge for the destruction and deaths of Annie's battle with Eren in their Titan forms. That may be because he wants to protect Mikasa, and she might end up collateral damage, even if she isn't the direct target of an attack.

16\. He claimed Levi trying to kill him is a game they play, and then belittled him, referring to him in a way that implied he is still a child. Again, I think he was definitely trying to goad Levi, to humiliate him, to make him react without thinking, maybe so Levi would lash out at him again. It's what bullies do: they act really superior and try to goad their victims into behaving like victims, to keep their control over them, to make them so angry or embarrassed they can't think, that they just react. Or it may have been more calculated than that, him deliberately demeaning Levi in Erwin's and the others' eyes.

17\. He… um… damn it. I'm sorry, Levi, but you said to tell you everything. He said he's legitimate, and said Levi wasn't and said something very denigrating about his mother. Again, he was trying to keep Levi off balance. He apparently delights in torturing him verbally and mentally, even if he never tortured him physically, although I'm pretty sure… but that's just speculation, and not really my business, and I hate having to tell you everything I heard and am thinking in front of everyone, but I know how important it is that we all know about this.

18\. He said he's far more aware of the ramifications of the danger to humanity, if Annie is injured or killed, than we are, when Erwin warned about potential retribution by Bertolt and Reiner. Again, it implies he knows the Titan shifters, that he understands their actions and reactions, and how they might retaliate.

19\. He told Dok he no longer had a reason to arrest Mikasa, because the man who put the bounty on Mikasa's head was dead. We know now that Ackerman's the one who killed him, as the Numbers Killer. Dok said Ackerman was the one who had suggested arresting her. So it looks like he was trying to protect her, until he could kill the man who endangered her. And he killed the heads of those bounty offices too. That implies he'll kill anyone who endangers his family, or someone he cares about, or wants to control, however you want to look at it. I'm curious what the numbers mean, but we can talk about that later.

20\. Sorry again Levi, but… he accused Levi of being incompetent and unfit for duty, again to try to assert his dominance over him, or to keep Levi from thinking and functioning rationally, or to make him look bad in front of Erwin and the others.

21\. He lied and said that Mikasa told him we were about to embark on an important training and team building mission, and added that part of it was to acclimate Eren to working underground. He made it sound like it didn't matter if any Lurkers, or Underground dwellers, were killed if Eren lost control in his Titan form. So he not only knows the cover story of our mission, but also potentially our true mission, which again implies a spy on base, or, and I don't believe this is true, it can't be true, but maybe even within our nine man Squad, or Commander Erwin or Squad Leader Hange, because no one else knew about our mission and… no, wait.

When Jean and Connie were talking in the barracks, when Jean speculated about it, Reiner and Bertolt overheard. Ackerman could either have spoken to Reiner or Bertolt, or someone else from our barracks was awake that we didn't know about, and listening in, and they heard and reported to…

Oh my God. Ymir and Krista! It could have been them! We know they were at least in Stohess, we didn't check to see if they entered the Capital, but if they're his spies, they could have reported to him in Stohess.

Or it could be Reiner and Bertolt. Or someone else from the barracks that we don't know left base. Or maybe even former Squad Leader Miller, especially since he probably resents all of us, for his demotion. It might even be Rickard, if he still has friends in the Corps who talk to him and tell him things about us. He'd want revenge just as much as Miller, if not more so.

But anyway, two more points, and then I'm done.

22\. Ackerman claimed he'd accept the blame along with Eren if he rampaged again, in Titan form. Since he already threatened Eren on the roof, he might have been hinting that he'd take the responsibility and kill him. Eren, you have to watch your back, especially after what you said to him. I think you definitely made him your enemy, and you probably were already, just for being Mikasa's boyfriend, if he's at all possessive, and I think he might be, although Levi can tell us if he is.

23\. And finally, he called Erwin "Edward" and claimed it was a slip of the tongue, but it sounded premeditated and deliberate. Again, he was trying to upset Levi, but worse, he was deliberately trying to drive a wedge between him and Erwin with that.

"That's it. That's all I learned. Levi, you can't let him do that, no matter what secret Commander Erwin might be keeping from you," Armin entreated.

"That's not important right now. You did an excellent job, brat. Hange, is there anything Armin missed? Do you have anything to add?" Levi asked.

"Armin covered what he said and did remarkably well. He didn't miss a single salient or cogent point. It sounds like Kenny Ackerman might be a psychopath, a sociopath, or both. He's quite likely a sadist. But sane or insane, I think that, much like the Titan shifters, he has his own agenda, and he feels his actions are justified, possibly even righteous, and that vengeance may be at their core. The Numbers Killings might have been revenge or retribution for crimes either real or imagined. Tell me Levi, is he possessive? And also, what do the numbers mean? Do you know?" Hange asked, staring at him with owlish intensity.

"He's possessive as fuck. Those numbers refer to… Pixis was right, that fucker calls them his Commandments, like he was fucking God, and he punished people according to which one they broke. They're based off the original Ten Commandments. I know what every number means, and the one he'll carve into me, and each of the rest of you, if he gets a chance," Levi said. "Anything else?"

Armin swallowed, hard. He knew the Ten Commandments. His grandfather had taught them to him. _Someone making up his own and using them to punish people, a serial killer using them for that…_ He fought a shudder and the unusual urge to pray.

"No, that's it for now. Just that he's obviously dangerous, quite possibly unstable and unpredictable," Hange cautioned.

"No shit," Levi snarled. "Erwin, it's your turn."

"That was an excellent report you gave, Kirstein, Yeager, Ackerman, and an excellent analysis, Arlert, Hange. I have no observations to add. You covered everything. All I'll say in regards to the name Edward is it's a name I used in the past. I won't say when or why. None of you are to ever repeat that name in connection with me. It's possible Ackerman thinks he can use my name and what it means to blackmail me, but frankly, the only power it has to harm me is in relation to Levi, so I'm going to take that power away from Ackerman, by telling Levi in private what it means. None of the rest of you need to know," Erwin stated.

"Does that bastard Zacharius already know? Or Dok?" Levi demanded.

Erwin sighed heavily. "Nile and Marie have always known. Mike knows, but he discovered it on his own years ago, back when we were cadets together. I didn't tell him, if it makes you feel any better."

"Yeah, I feel fucking terrific, knowing you've lied to me for years about your own fucking **name**," Levi growled.

"Levi, we're not discussing this here. All I'll say is Edward is my name as much as Kenny Ackerman is your father. The delusions of cruel men who once held power over us no longer signify, unless we let them," Erwin said intently.

Levi's fierce scowl changed to a look of speculation and then, temporarily at least, acceptance. "Alright. Fine. I'll drop it, for now. Jean, Eren, Mikasa, Armin: how likely do all of you think it is that Braun and Hoover are working with Kenny Ackerman?"

"No way in hell," Eren stated confidently. "Reiner would have had his ass killed a long time ago. There's no way he'd put up with that guy."

"Frankly, I was surprised you didn't go ballistic, Eren, when I told Ackerman I was going to discipline you for being disrespectful to him," Jean admitted.

"Yeah, well I had no idea who the hell he was, but after what he said, and then when I saw you cave to him like that, and even Mikasa suddenly kissing his ass, I realized he must be dangerous as hell, so I kept my mouth shut. I might not be the most observant guy in the Corps, but I'm not an idiot, you know. I trust both your instincts. After what Levi said, that he wasn't crippled or dead only because Ackerman didn't want to cripple or kill him, I realized how lucky I was that I curbed my temper and followed your lead," Eren said solemnly.

_Eren trusted Jean that much now? Respected him that much?_ Even with the rest of it being so disturbing, hearing that warmed Armin's heart.

Armin could see Jean was similarly affected. "Thanks. That means a lot, hearing that, especially from you."

At Eren's scowl, Jean added hastily. "I wasn't ranking on you or anything. I just mean, it's not like I've been your favorite person, you know? I'm just glad we've put all that behind us. And I think you're right. I can't see Reiner holding back in front of Ackerman. I think it's someone else."

"OK then. What about Ymir and Lenz?" Erwin asked.

"I don't know why they would. I mean, Ymir is pretty much at Reiner's level, when it comes to not taking anyone's bullshit. The only way I could see her do it is if it was to protect Krista somehow. Like if he was blackmailing them or something. Not threatening them too much, though, because Ymir would go after him," Eren stated.

"I agree, with all of that. I think if Krista was in some kind of trouble or danger, Ymir would do anything to save her, no matter who else got hurt. She's not really close to any of the rest of us," Armin admitted.

"Ymir's as protective of Krista as I am of Eren and Armin and you, Levi. She'd kill anyone who tried to hurt Krista, but as the corollary to that, would aid anyone who helped Krista," Mikasa said.

"Thank you for not going after Kenny on the roof, after he kicked me, Mikasa," Levi said unexpectedly. At Eren's glare he added, "You too, Eren. I'm glad you both realized how dangerous it would have been, that you held back, without me warning you to. Erwin at least knew a little about Ackerman, how dangerous he is, but you were both flying completely blind. I'm glad you didn't get hurt because of me."

"It's not because of you. He'd be dangerous to us anyway, because of Mikasa," Eren argued.

Levi nodded. "So, what are the chances it's Miller or Rickard?"

"They'd both be capable of that, for the reasons Armin cited earlier, primarily, revenge and feeling unfairly persecuted," Hange stated. "They had motive, but I'm not sure they had opportunity."

The carriage drew to a halt, and Levi peeked out the window. "Shit, we're at the base. Remember, not a word of any of this. That bastard has spies everywhere. Only if Erwin or I bring it up," he ordered.

They all agreed to stay silent.


	20. Chapter 20 - Life Lessons

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
For those of you who didn't read **_**Outmaneuvered**_** or don't remember the significance of the Medea reference below, when Levi first met Armin's kitten Blackberry in Chapter 57, Levi told Mikasa, Armin and Eren that there was a line from the play **_**Medea**_** that had kept him sane for years: "People go mad if they think too much." ("Mad" being the historic term for insane, not angry). It reminds him that sometimes he just needs to stop thinking for a while. Levi said also, sometimes he needs to talk to someone who's already mad, so he speaks to Hange, for a "proper dose of crazy".  
**

**Connell Kearney and Liam O'Seanessey are also from **_**Outmaneuvered**_**, Chapter 45, A Leg to Stand on. Both men were maimed by Titans and discharged from the Corps on medical disability pensions, though Kearney still works for them in secret. Kearney lost his arms saving his niece when Shiganshina was overrun. Liam and his twin sister, Caitlin, were maimed by a Titan on a mission, and saved by Levi, who killed their attacker. Both men work in a shop that makes prosthetic limbs, as well as braces and canes, but tragically, Caitlin died of gangrene.**

Chapter 20 – Life Lessons

Just before they opened the carriage door, Jean pulled Eren's key from around his neck and held it out to Erwin. "Sir? You said you'd take this back, after the interrogation."

"Thank you, Kirstein," Erwin said, reclaiming it, putting the looped chain over his head and tucking the key away under his shirt.

Jean exhaled in relief, glad to be rid of the burden. He had wondered at first why they didn't make one or more copies of the key, because it was too valuable to risk losing, but realized, by the same token, it was too dangerous to risk it getting into someone else's hands. Plus, who knew if there was more to the key than met the eye? For all they knew it was made of some sort of special metal that only looked like brass, or maybe even the shape of the key head itself was significant somehow.

None of it made sense. _How can Eren's basement possibly hold information worth dying for?_ But dozens of Scouts had died on their last mission alone, and more would likely follow, though he hoped not. Still, even with the dynamite, he couldn't imagine the 11 of them managing to take on all the Titans in Shiganshina by themselves, long enough to retrieve whatever might be inside. Assuming it hadn't been destroyed when Eren's house was crushed.

Jean was pretty sure it was a suicide mission and he'd had his fill of attempted suicide. After becoming determined to live, no matter what the world threw at him, or who he lost, he was no longer eager or even willing to die, but then, few people were, right? Death was seldom a voluntary choice. _What if we finally make it there and the basement is empty? What if the Titan shifters have already ransacked it? What if all these deaths are for nothing?_

He frowned as he realized Sasha, Anders and Bauer had been looked at the rest of them, the ones who'd ridden inside speculatively, apparently realizing they were being kept out of the loop, and Connie, of course, had been glaring. But now they were all focused on Hange, not in the usual "look at the crazy lady" way, but darting glances at her, and keeping their distance as if they were actually afraid of her, or at least really freaked out by her, in a bad way.

"Why's everyone looking at Hange like that?" Jean asked Armin softly.

Armin's eyes widened as he looked from Hange to the others and back again.

Hange looked over in Sasha's direction and muttered something softly to Levi and Erwin.

Armin scowled. "It's because of what she had to do, and it's not fair," Armin said, and headed for the officers. Jean drifted over so he'd be within earshot and tried to look like he wasn't listening as the three stopped speaking and looked at Armin with varying degrees of curiosity.

"Excuse me, sirs," Armin said, and turned his back on Erwin and Levi, facing Hange. "I just wanted to say, I understand why you did what you did, the way you did it, and how hard it was for you, not only doing it, but knowing how everyone would react. I wanted you to know, nothing that happened in that room changes the way I feel about you. No, it does. I realize now more than ever what a good friend you are, a good person. Thank you for protecting Levi. I'm honored you're my friend."

Hange blinked at him owlishly in surprise. And then she turned to Levi, who was balancing on his crutches, and grinned. "And you told me that they were all idiots, and that I should just ignore them."

Levi scowled. "I didn't mean Armin. He's not an idiot, obviously, Shitty Glasses. Stop trying to get me in trouble."

"Aw, you're so cute when you pout," Hange teased, blatantly exhibiting a death wish.

"I agree," Erwin said with a smile.

Levi's glare, which normally would have lessened with Erwin's smile trained on him, actually intensified.

Erwin stopped smiling and sighed instead. Then he turned to Armin. "Arlert, I want you to know, you did an excellent job in there, in an extremely difficult situation. I know you think we didn't learn anything, but we actually did gain some value from that interrogation, thanks to you."

"I… thank you, sir," Armin said, obviously surprised and pleased by the praise.

Jean was glad Erwin was back to appreciating Armin, the way he used to, before the concussion had changed him so much. The Commander seemed to finally be back to normal.

"Inside, everyone. We need to get our training mission underway," Erwin ordered, and everyone followed him to the door of the base, where Pixis and half the eight men who had accompanied them were waiting for them.

"Did something happen to the other four men?" Jean asked Armin discreetly.

"They stayed behind because they're all expert archers. Pixis brought extra in case the others got killed. The one that was trained by Hange to use the dynamite is teaching the other three and the Military Police, so they're as safe as they can be," Armin told him.

"So you were able to free Annie and question her? But what was all that about Hange?" Jean asked, and regretted it when Armin paled.

"It, um, didn't go the way we'd hoped," Armin explained.

_Holy shit. Did Hange actually torture Annie? And poor Armin had to watch?_ Jean didn't ask anything else. He figured they'd talk about it inside, as a Squad, and if not, he was sure Armin would fill him in later.

They entered the building, passing through the antechamber and into the long hallway leading to Pixis's office and the conference room. "Before we continue, I'd like our doctor to take a look at Captain Levi," Pixis said firmly to Erwin.

_Uh oh._ Jean saw Levi's eyes spark at that and Erwin visibly stiffen.

"You picked the wrong day to go over my head, Old Man. Erwin's currently on my shit list," Levi snapped. "My fucking leg is fucking fine. It's not like I've never been wounded or kicked before. You've got no idea of the shit I lived through, long before I had anyone to help me. If I need help, I'll ask Mikasa."

The men about Pixis visibly bristled. Captain Karl Schneider was the one to speak up. "This is not the first time you insult our Commander. You will show the proper respect, or we will teach it to you."

"I'd like to see you fucking try, you prick," Levi snarled.

"Levi!" Erwin chastised, his name alone both an order and a reprimand.

"I'm not your fucking dog!" Levi growled, belying the statement.

Schneider glared contemptuously. "Yet you snap and bite at your master's hand like…."

In a move too fast to see, Levi was on him. In an instant Levi had his back to the wall, with Schneider pinned against him, an arm and leg wrapped around him, and a bared knife blade at the elite soldier's throat, as the abandoned crutches fell to the ground. The expression on Levi's face was cold, calculating and deadly: anything but feral.

"Stand down!" Erwin and Pixis ordered instantly and simultaneously, both also physically trying to block Pixis's remaining men from intervening, while Mikasa and Armin and Eren also leapt in front of Levi to protect him from retaliation.

"If the Captain intended to kill him, he'd already be dead," Eren proclaimed, which wasn't necessarily the right thing to say, considering the level of tension in the hallway.

"Levi. I want to take a look at your leg, if you'll allow it. I'm sure Commander Pixis can provide us with a private room and any supplies I might need," Mikasa gently urged, turning to face their deadly Captain as she spoke.

"Captain Levi, sir? You showed remarkable restraint during the interrogation, when you had a far greater need for vengeance. Please release Captain Schneider and put the knife away. Our mission will be easier with the assistance of the Garrison," Armin encouraged, also turning his back to the Garrison men, so he could look Levi in the eye when trying to reason with him.

"If you need to kick the shit out of someone, because of that fucktard on the roof, kick me. I'll heal up quickly no matter what you do to me and still be good for the mission," Eren volunteered, looking Levi right in the eye, knowing exactly what he was setting himself up for, after having been on the wrong end of Levi's boots once before.

"Levi, remember _Medea_. If you don't want to listen to us, talk to Hange again," Mikasa urged.

"Or me. How about we get away from these guys and talk shop, maybe get a bite to eat?" Sasha suggested, too brightly.

Levi didn't move a muscle, or say a word, in response to all their efforts to sway him.

_Shit! If he isn't listening to the four of them, and won't talk to Hange, and if Erwin would only set him off more, how the hell are we going to… What the hell is the Captain thinking, attacking Pixis's man like that? _

_No, he's not thinking at all, is he? He's feeling, reacting, running on instinct. He got pissed and he attacked without thinking it through, but he stopped himself shy of killing Schneider. But now he's trapped himself. If he backs down, he looks weak, and he's already made enemies he can't afford to make. I can't let this happen. I can't watch him self-destruct like this, especially not after he saved me. It's almost like this time he's the one trying to commit suicide. Shit. Is he? No. No way. How could he, after he stopped me, after what he said to…? That's it! Please let this work._

Jean approached Levi, and was gratified and deeply touched when all five of Levi's protectors allowed it, although it was more likely out of desperation than thinking he could actually help. But he was pretty sure that right now, this moment, he was the only one who actually could. Their stoic, indestructible Captain was imploding, letting the weight of everything crush him to death. Jean wasn't about to allow that, not when they needed him so badly, when Armin and so many others would be devastated by it, when Levi had saved him, when he'd been the one reacting instead of thinking, or maybe just thinking too much.

Jean looked Levi right in his sparking, storm cloud gray eyes. "Captain Levi, sir?" Everyone around him froze and waited breathlessly, wondering what he could possibly say that might work, when even Levi's closest friends hadn't been able to sway him. But Jean didn't have to struggle with what to say. He already knew the exact words to use, and that, if anything would work, this would.

"You've had a shit life and an even shittier day. Nothing will ever take that pain away. And I won't lie to you. It's only going to get worse, before it gets better. And after it gets better, it will get worse again. But there **are** times it will be better. Life's like that. You need to live for those times that suck less. Because the alternative sucks even worse. Nothing is worse than death. You of all people should know that."

Just as he hoped, those all too familiar words struck a chord and something clicked deep within those tempestuous eyes, inside Levi's psyche, maybe even in his soul.

"Tch. And they say Arlert's the brilliant one," Levi said in acknowledgement of the master move Jean had just played by reciting back word for word the same speech Levi had given him in the stable, the day Levi caught him trying to kill himself.

"Commander Pixis, my apologies for attacking your man," Levi stated. "I'm going to put away my knife and let Schneider go. But if anyone attacks me or tries to arrest me after that, they won't live to regret it. That's not a threat, it's just fact."

"No one under any circumstances is to act against Captain Levi for his actions here today. After I've spoken with him, if I feel punishment is warranted, I will be the one to exact it. This is a family matter that escalated unnecessarily because, in respect for his privacy, I chose not to inform any of you of our relation to one another. Captain Levi is my cousin. Now that you know, you will understand that, as Captain Levi is related to me by blood, spilling his is the equivalent of spilling mine," Pixis stated, looking each of his men in the eye, one at a time, including Schneider, to be certain they understood.

Then Pixis turned to Levi. "Levi, blood or not, if you ever attack any of my men again, for such a petty reason, I will personally see that your punishment meets the crime. Is that understood?"

Jean wasn't the only one to tense. Erwin was all but vibrating, and the others were on a knife's edge of tension.

"Yes, Commander Pixis, sir. I fully understand," Levi said respectfully. And with that, he lowered his knife, to everyone's relief, slipping it away into a hidden sheath, and releasing Schneider.

"Thank you for not killing him, Karl. It would have been distressing, losing you both, watching you take him down with you," Pixis stated, in a blatant attempt to both appease the man and help him regain face in front of the others, while at the same time, apparently warning him that he couldn't hope to survive in a battle against even a wounded and irrational Levi.

Schneider turned toward Levi, but slowly, his hands held loosely at his sides. "In payment for this attack, I would like you to teach me that move. I apologize for the insult I spoke. As the Commander said, I was unaware of your familial bond. We say things to family that are forgiven that we would never forgive from another. I do not wish to be your enemy, but I will be one, if you do not leave me an alternative."

Levi nodded. "After our mission, I'll come back and spar with you. And I already apologized to Pixis, but now, I personally apologize for attacking you. As Kirstein said, it's been a particularly shitty day."

"Your apology is accepted. I look forward to facing you," Schneider replied and the tension in the hall visibly dispersed.

"Commander Pixis, I'd like to take you up on that offer of a doctor, and Ackerman, I'd like you to come too. I want you both to take a look at my leg. And we should have the rest of the wounded checked out, Arlert and Kirstein, and particularly Springer, since it's my fault he's using a cane when he should be on crutches," he added, which didn't win him any points with Connie, but fortunately didn't piss him off either.

"I should probably go too. You know, as follow-up because of the poisoning," Sasha added hopefully. Jean could tell she was worried about Levi, and maybe also just wanted to stick close to him and Connie.

"Alright Blouse. You come too," Levi agreed, to Sasha's visible relief.

"Follow me," Pixis ordered. "The rest of you wait in the conference room, but you are to refrain from discussing the various issues until everyone is present."

Jean could feel Erwin's eyes on them, or more likely, on Levi, as they headed down the hall, trailing after Pixis.

0 0 0

Levi was furious with himself, for letting Kenny get to him so badly that he would lose his temper and screw up like that. He wasn't sure anyone realized just how close he'd come to slitting Schneider's throat, except maybe Schneider himself. The man had been tense and ready to counterstrike, even knowing there was no way he'd walk away. Caught in the same position, Levi would have attacked and gotten his throat slit in the process, but he would have taken the fucker who attacked him down with him.

They'd all tried so hard to break through to him, but he'd been so far gone, even Mikasa's words about _Medea_ and the usual power of that quote that had seen him through so much weren't enough to bring him back. And then Jean, of all people, had spoken up, throwing his own words right back at him. He was glad all over again for adding him to his Squad. Jean had saved Erwin, and now he'd saved him.

_Erwin, that fucker._ He never should have broken Lesson 1 for Erwin_: __If you don't respect anyone, you can never be controlled._ He'd compromised on so many of his other Life Lessons because of him, for him, over the years, and now he'd gotten royally screwed because of it. He'd trusted Erwin and been betrayed by him. He'd allowed himself to become vulnerable, and Kenny had seen he was weak, and gutted him.

Schneider never would have mouthed off to him like that if he'd enforced Lesson 3, and now he'd broken Lesson 6 by letting him live. And he'd almost fucking forgotten Lesson 11. He ran them all through his head now, the Life Lessons he'd developed in direct opposition to Kenny's Commandments, reinforcing them in his mind:

1\. If you don't respect anyone, you can never be controlled.

2\. If you don't want to be seen and recognized, keep your face and form hidden.

3\. Your name is a powerful weapon: make sure people fear it.

4\. Self reliance is the key to survival.

5\. Family makes you vulnerable.

6\. Kill anyone who is a danger to you. Never leave live enemies.

7\. Sex is power and control.

8\. Take everything you can carry without encumbering yourself.

9\. If you don't trust anyone, you can never be betrayed.

10\. Envy is pointless and will get you killed.

11\. Dead men can't learn from their mistakes.

_Tch._ It was fucking hopeless, pointless. The only one of them that worked anymore was Lesson 11. He couldn't keep any of the others and still have Hange, Sasha, Mikasa, Armin, Eren, and Jean in his life. And maybe that actually was alright. Because the other ten Lessons had been in response to Kenny. Eleven had been one he'd written and learned all on his own.

_As for Erwin, we're fucking done. He lied to me for __**years **__about his __**name**__. What else has he lied about?_ _Zacharius had known Erwin was really Edward. Have they been secretly fucking all this time too? All those times that asshole Zacharius ridiculed me for the way I held my teacups and knife and swords and pen, was Erwin secretly laughing at me right along with him? _

_Why the fuck should I even care, at this point? Because I was stupid enough to think I loved him, that he loved me? He's been using me. All this time, he's been using me. Humanity's Strongest Soldier. Someone to make him look good, to give people hope when there is none. Shit. Fuck. I told him about my phobias. I kept them hidden from everyone for years, even from him, and now I gave him the most powerful weapon he could ever have to use against me._

Adrenaline slammed into him, the way it had when he grabbed Schneider, that same desperate need bordering on panic, to run or kill something._ Stop it! Stop thinking! Get out of here! Go, before you hurt someone! You can't hurt Jean or Armin or Sasha or Mikasa. Not even Springer or Pixis._

Unfortunately, they'd reached the Infirmary and Pixis opened the door before Levi could bolt. Every instinct was screaming at him to run, but the sight beyond the door froze him where he stood.

Two men were leaning over a bed which contained not a patient, but some metal equipment, one of them talking animatedly to the other, gesturing with metal claws where his hands should have been: Kearney. Captain Connell Kearney, officially retired from the Corps on a medical disability pension, after losing both arms in Shiganshina, but unofficially, still working for the Corps. The man was a brilliant inventor, a mechanical genius, and losing his arms hadn't changed that.

It had been six months since Levi had seen him, at Caitlin O'Seanessey's funeral, and he looked the same. No, he looked happy, healthy, not grief-stricken. But he was still wearing artificial limbs of his own design, leather straps reminiscent of their maneuver gear harness connecting two metal forearms to the stumps of his arms, with three pronged claws where his hands should have been. Kearney turned towards them, hearing or seeing them enter, like a good Scout not losing sight of his surroundings in spite of the intensity of his conversation, his warm, expectant smile shifting to an excited grin when his eyes locked with Levi's, not the person he was expecting, but someone he valued as a friend.

"Captain Levi, sair!" the man cried in pleased surprise, in his familiar brogue, saluting him, clenched claws over his heart.

Kearney was one of the few men worthy of a salute, and Levi immediately leaned his crutches against the door frame and returned the gesture.

Kearney's welcoming smile morphed into a concerned frowned. "Forgive me for saying so, sair, but ye look terrible. From what the Commander told me, I'd 'ave thought ye'd be using the cane Liam gifted ye already, but I see the young lad is using it instead, and ye appear to be in pain. Was the damage worse than 'e feared? If so, we've an assortment of braces with us that ye should see."

Levi snatched up his crutches, all thoughts of running gone, as he swung over to Kearney. "It was healing well, but I've reinjured it twice. If you have something that would fit me, and Springer, we could both use the help. He sprained his knee. And Armin and Jean could maybe use arm braces, if you have them. They were both shot in the arm, recently, Jean only today. I also have a question about maneuver gear, and we could use your expertise trying to open a uniquely complex door as well, if you're up for a challenge," he mentioned, his focus again on the mission.

He needed to know if Kearney had made special maneuver gear for the First Interior Squad or for Kenny in particular. Also, with Kearney there, they might not need the dynamite to reopen Sigma Gate. Depending upon what they found in Shiganshina, if there was equipment involved, he definitely wanted Kearney to help them analyze it, but in the relative safety of the Capital, not in Shiganshina. He would have loved to have him at their side, but he refused to risk him like that, nor could he ask a man who'd already lost so much to the Titans to face them again.

"Could ye' use my help as well, sair? For old time's sake?" an achingly familiar voice said from the door.

A bolt of pain ripped through Levi and he belatedly knew who Kearney had been expecting to see._ Liam. Fuck._ Just when a ray of light appeared after the storm, the sky had clouded over again. Levi hadn't thought the day could get any shittier. He'd been a moment too late to save the twins, and both Caity and Liam had lost a leg. Worse, the gangrene that followed cost Caity her life. Liam had survived losing his leg, but losing Caity had destroyed him.

Levi braced himself and turned to the door. "O'Seanessey." To his relief, Liam was looking far better than the last time he saw him, and not just because he entered the room on his own two feet without so much as a limp, even though Levi had seen how little the Titan he killed had left of Liam's left leg: it had been bitten off at mid thigh. Levi had seen artificial legs before, for below the knee bites, but never one with a working knee joint that replaced above the knee loss so effectively. But more than the leg, Liam wasn't pale and skeletal looking as he'd been before, as if he'd soon follow his sister, as if he wanted to. His Kelly green eyes were once again bright and alive instead of dull and lifeless, no longer reflecting nothing but emptiness and loss.

"It's good to see you again," Levi said sincerely, swinging up to him, barely suppressing a bizarre, uncharacteristic urge to hug the man. Although he was hot as fuck, with that red hair and green eyes and lean, fit body, and both Caity and Liam had made it clear on more than one occasion that they'd be more than willing to take him to their bed, officer or not. The twins liked both men and women, threesomes or sometimes foursomes, but they were selective as to who they'd take to their bed and what they'd do with them, once they got them there. If he could have had Liam alone, he probably would have risked his life and his heart and gone for it. He'd liked Caity, she was a lot like Isabel, they both were, but he'd had no interest in bedding her or any other woman, and the twins never screwed without each other.

"Of course we can use your help. And you've already helped. Thank you for the cane. It's perfect. I lent it to Springer earlier today, when my leg was reinjured, and I needed to borrow back my crutches, but I'll be reclaiming it after I'm done here. But if you ever decide you want it back, just let me know. I know you made it for your sister, and how hard it must have been to part with it."

"Not at all, sair. You saved both me and Caity. She'd have wanted you to have it. I want you to as well, or I'd never have gifted it to you," Liam insisted.

"I'm honored. As to helping us, just before you came in, Kearney said something about leg braces, and I told him both Springer and I could use one, and a pair of arm braces too, for two of my other men. But also, we need your help with something else, which I'll discuss with you both in private, after the doctor takes a look at us."

"If there's anything else you'd like to do in private, the offer still stands," Liam said boldly. Not saucily, with a devilish wink, as he would have in the past, but with an air of seriousness to his words.

Levi gave the offer the intense consideration it deserved. He trusted Liam, he was one of the few left that he did trust, and a mutual release of pain might help him get through Erwin's betrayal. He wouldn't be able to do the mission without getting himself or someone else killed, angry as he still was. But only as long as he wouldn't hurt Liam somehow by it. He'd cut his own leg off, before he'd ever hurt him. He nodded, "After we're done with business."

Liam's eyes flared in surprise, and then a slow smile lit his handsome face.

0 0 0

Armin stared wide-eyed at Levi. _Who is that? What did Levi mean, about the cane? I thought Erwin gave it to him. Why is Levi looking at him like that? I know he's angry with Erwin, but he wouldn't really… would he?_

Armin saw the other man, Kearney, who'd smiled in welcome only moments ago at O'Seanessey, was frowning at both of them now. Was Kearney O'Seanessey's lover? Or was he just as upset as Armin was at the thought of Levi with someone other than Erwin?

Pixis looked troubled, too, and disappointed. "Captain, which of your men would you like Doctor Harris to see first?" Pixis asked pointedly.

"Springer first. Kearney, O'Seanessey, you should examine him too, so you can see how his knee looks and figure out what he needs," Levi suggested.

Sasha and Jean both trailed after Springer and helped him onto one of the beds. Then Levi turned to Armin.

"It's none of your business, brat. Or yours, Mikasa. I see you don't approve, but it's not open for debate. We're both consenting adults, Erwin made his bed, and he'll be lying in it alone, from now on. That was his choice, his mistake. Not that he ever really gave a fuck, or he wouldn't have lied to me all those years," Levi said bitterly.

"But you haven't even talked to him yet!" Armin argued. He couldn't stay silent, not about this, not when Levi was making such a horrible mistake. Erwin loved Levi, Armin knew he did. Losing Levi had almost destroyed him. And Levi loved Erwin just as fiercely. They needed each other. They belonged together.

"He had a million chances to talk, over the past years. He could have told me the truth any one of those thousands of days."

"You're giving that asshole exactly what he wants," Mikasa accused. "He's trying to drive you apart, and you're letting him do it. You told us he controlled you for eleven years, that you finally got away from him when you were eighteen. You said yourself he's evil, that he plays head games and is good at manipulating people. Why are you letting him control you again, manipulate you again? If he's trying to drive you and Erwin apart, you should do everything you can to stay at Erwin's side, if for no other reason than to thwart that monster, to frustrate him."

She'd carefully avoided using Ackerman's name, but Armin could see how much talking about him at all had Levi on edge.

"And he could just as easily be trying to get me to do exactly that, knowing my gut reaction is to do the opposite of what he wants," Levi argued quietly enough so Harris couldn't possibly overhear. "He's a master psychologist, Mikasa, but he's also insane. You can't try to figure him out using rational thinking and logic. He will never do what you expect him to. He'll always be two steps ahead."

"Then how did you get away? And why didn't he come after you, and bring you back?" she demanded softly.

"Fuck if I know. I told you, you won't ever know how he thinks, what he thinks. In those eleven years, I barely learned enough to keep me alive, or that's what I used to tell myself. But the truth is, he could have easily killed me then, and he can just as easily kill me now. Injured or not, he's better than me. He's taller, stronger and just as fast. He will always be better, until he gets old enough that he slows down, or I somehow manage to outthink him, or the unpredictability of luck takes him out. Meanwhile, everyone around me is a target. There's more than one reason I kept to myself all these years," Levi said grimly.

"We can protect ourselves, Levi," Mikasa stated.

"No, damn it, Mikasa, you can't. He's better than you, too. Even as a group… maybe you and me together, if we practiced together so we were perfectly in sync. You can't underestimate him, Mikasa. If you piss him off enough, he'll kill you, niece or not," Levi insisted. She needed to see that.

"Believe me, I'll be careful, and I'm not underestimating him. I saw what he's capable of. But you're the one we're worried about. Please don't do anything with anyone until you talk to Erwin. Don't sabotage what you have. You have a right to be happy, Levi. Your friends who died, old and new, don't want you to be miserable, and neither do we. Please don't sadden us," Mikasa urged.

Armin held his breath, knowing her mentioning them might well set Levi off again, this time against her.

"Alright. Fine. I'll talk to Erwin first. But I'm pretty sure whatever he has to say is just going to piss me off worse," Levi warned.


	21. Chapter 21 - Damage Control

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 21 – Damage Control

_What the hell is taking them so long? Is someone injured worse than we realized? Is it Levi, or Springer?_ Erwin had been glad, at first, for the time away from Levi, to try to work out what he was going to say to him, how much he should tell him, and how to break it to him, but the wait was becoming interminable, and only adding to his stress level, now.

The door to the conference room opened, and Pixis entered, followed by Erwin's missing men. Erwin's eyes widened in surprise and confusion, as Springer strode into the room, without benefit of crutches or a cane, until he saw the brace on his injured leg, one that went from mid-calf to mid-thigh. He was talking animatedly with Blouse and Kirstein. Arlert and Kirstein were both wearing arm braces, over their biceps. Arlert and Ackerman looked surprisingly grim. Worried. _Is Arlert's injury infected? Or his hands more badly sliced by the crystal than Hange had realized? Or is it Levi they're worried about_? He looked expectantly for Levi and frowned when he didn't see him.

"Where's Levi?" Erwin asked in concern.

"He's… talking to an old friend," Armin explained, giving him a look of sympathy mixed with worry.

Erwin paled. "Not that bastard from the roof? He's not here on base, is he? You didn't leave Levi alone with that ass?" Erwin demanded, his body flooding with adrenaline as he geared for battle.

"No sir. A friend, not an enemy," Mikasa Ackerman corrected.

_Levi doesn't have any old friends. Not live ones. _But then Connell Kearney entered the room, carrying a familiar pair of crutches. "That explains the braces. It's good to see you again, Captain," Erwin greeted in relief. If Kearney had the crutches, Levi must have reclaimed his cane. But now that Kearney was here, where was Levi?

"Ye too, sair. But I only hope us being here solves more problems than it causes," Kearney said, looking as worried as Arlert.

Erwin frowned. "Why would…?" He broke off the question abruptly as Levi strode into the room, wearing a brace that went from his ankle to the top of his thigh, carrying his cane instead of using it. At his side was Liam O'Seanessey. Erwin's smile of welcome froze on his face, at the blatant chemistry that was sparking between the two men. "O'Seanessey," Erwin said noncommittally in greeting, fighting the sudden urge to punch the man in the face and yank Levi away from him.

"Commander! It's good to see you again, sair!" O'Seanessey claimed, with apparent sincerity.

"Levi, we need to talk," Erwin stated firmly.

"Obviously. That's why we're here," Levi replied coolly.

"I mean you and me. Alone. Now," Erwin demanded. The longer Levi had to stew about this, the harder it would be for him to forgive him for it – if he ever would – which wasn't likely. But he refused to let their relationship end like this, or to risk Levi leaving the Corps.

Levi glared disdainfully at Erwin.

"You can use my office, if you'll both give me your word you won't poke into any of my files or papers. And you likewise have my word you won't be overheard. You'll truly be speaking in private. I'll see to it," Pixis offered generously.

"You have my word, and my sincere thanks," Erwin swore.

"Fine. Mine too," Levi agreed with obvious reluctance.

The short walk to Pixis's office was borne in silence, with Pixis leading them. Pixis unlocked the door for them, waved them in, and then closed it behind them.

Levi spun to face Erwin, pain and fury in his face. "Talk," he commanded.

Erwin inhaled heavily and exhaled just as loudly. "I was born Erwin Smith. My name was changed to Edward when I was five years old by my biological father, who hadn't wanted anything to do with me, until his legitimate son and wife both died. I reclaimed my true name when I enlisted as a cadet, against his orders. I almost died in training because of him, on more than one occasion. If it wasn't for Mike, I never would have survived it. That's how Mike learned my other name. But Erwin Smith is who I really am, the only one I ever wanted to be. I was named by my mother after my great-grandfather, who was like a father to me. Everything I am is because of my mother and great-grandfather, but they died and… Levi, the rest doesn't matter."

"Of course it does, or you wouldn't be trying to hide it from me. Still. Out with it," Levi demanded.

"Are you willing to tell me all the secrets of your past that you've hidden from me?" Erwin challenged desperately.

"Don't try to make this about me, and don't think I'm about to feel sorry for your 'poor little homeless orphan' story. Not when **your** father stepped in to take care of you, when my father threw us out onto the street, because he believed Kenny's lies," Levi snarled.

"Right. My father was a fucking saint, telling a sixteen year old virgin less than half his age that unless she became his mistress, he'd release her father from his service without a reference, and she, her parents and six younger siblings would starve to death. And then, when his wife regained a semblance of health, and became pregnant, he cast my mother aside. He didn't care that she was pregnant as well. My mother knew if she told her father the truth, he'd kill him for what he'd done, and then hang for it. So she kept silent and bore her family's censure.

"She was thrown out of the only home she'd ever known, and in desperation went to her paternal grandfather. Thankfully, he took her in. I should have been hated, for the man I represented, for the man I looked like, for what he'd done. But I was born into a loving family of two people, blissfully oblivious of the truth. And then they died, in a typhus epidemic, and my father's legitimate son and heir was killed in a riding accident, and his wife died in childbirth not a month later and…"

He stopped as Levi paled, a look of horror on his face. "You're a Reiss. You're Duke Helmut Reiss's bastard," he whispered.

_Shit._ Erwin had specifically not mentioned any names, hoping he wouldn't have to say too much, that he could keep part of his status at least hidden – the Reisses were second in power only to the king. _How the hell did Levi realize who I am?_

The horror on Levi's face turned to revelation, then grief and fury. "Fuck. Lovof knew when he sent me to get those papers and kill you, didn't he? Isabel and Furlan died because you're a fucking Reiss," Levi accused bitterly, but then his eyes filled with something Erwin had never seen before: terror.

_Damn it! I never wanted him to know. It was bad enough when he first found out I was a noble, but I made him think I was from some minor, inconsequential bloodline, and he never questioned it, he never dug deeper, even when I told him about Anna. Why didn't he press me for details? Why didn't he care then? No. It's more than that. What are you so afraid of? What are you hiding, Levi?_

"We're done here. We need to continue the mission, now," Levi said abruptly, heading for the door.

Erwin grabbed his arm without thinking, desperately needing to fix things between them. His world was literally turned upside down as, with a jarring slam, he was flat on his back on the floor. He froze as he felt the bared knife blade pressed to his throat as he stared into Levi's turbulent eyes.

"You stupid fucking ass! We don't have time for this bullshit. We need to get you out of the Capital, to the Underground, to Shiganshina. We need to get you safe," Levi snarled, in ludicrous contrast to the bared knife blade at his throat and his words.

Levi sounded sane, rational, in spite of his actions and words, but the Underground was dangerous and Shiganshina deadly. _What could possibly be worse than both those places?_ "What's wrong?" Erwin pleaded.

"You're a fucking Reiss!" Levi whisper-yelled.

Shaking. Levi was shaking, and even more disturbingly, the knife hadn't moved.

"Don't you understand? He's like a fucking Titan shifter, only worse: I can't protect you from him! No one knows why he starts or why he stops, why he picks the victims he does, why he lets some live, and the others are tortured to death, murdered, and you're a goddamned **Reiss**." Levi spoke the name as if it was a death sentence.

Erwin's eyes widened in shock and belated understanding. "Ackerman killed them? My cousins, my aunt, Uncle Rod's immediate family, everyone but Historia?" he whispered.

The bleakness in Levi's eyes was answer enough. That and his words, about torture and murder, and that Levi couldn't protect him.

_Shit. Is Levi thinking of killing me himself, here, now, to save me from being tortured to death later, by Ackerman?_ "Levi, he might have killed them, but he didn't torture them. No one ever connected their deaths to the Numbers Slayings because of that. But I'd rather be tortured to death than die by your hand. Put your knife away," Erwin commanded quietly but firmly.

Levi's eyes widened in shock and horror, as he stared not at Erwin, but at his hand, as if he'd hadn't even realized he was holding a knife.

_Shit._

To Erwin's simultaneous relief and concern, Levi flung the blade aside; it clattered against something, as Levi jerked back, away from him, trembling wildly.

Erwin sat up slowly, careful not to startle him, or seem remotely threatening. Levi's reflexes and instincts were perilously close to being completely out of control. One more false move, and he could easily be dead, and then Levi would be too: Erwin was certain Levi would never be able to live with himself, if he killed him.

Ackerman had Levi as badly rattled as he'd been back on their base, after his miraculous return, when his phobias had nearly destroyed him. He was teetering on the brink again. _How much more can Levi take, before he shatters? _

Erwin stood and approached slowly, his arms an open invitation, relieved when Levi didn't back away, though he didn't move forward either. Erwin didn't care, as he embraced Levi, pulling him against his chest, and thankfully, instead of pulling away or fighting against him, Levi's arms circled his waist.

"I'm sorry I kept secrets from you, but I can't promise I won't do it again," Erwin apologized. "I'll do anything and everything I have to, to protect you. For now, all I can do is offer you your own words: if he wanted me dead, I'd already be dead. Ackerman isn't the first to target me, by far, if it comes to that, and I won't allow him to be the last. But if in spite of my efforts he does kill me, it won't be because of you, not if he truly killed my aunt and cousins. He would have gone after me anyway. I need you to still trust me, Levi. I need you to still love me. There's no point to any of it, without that. I can't save humanity if I lose you. I wouldn't even want to," Erwin admitted, baring his soul.

"Of course I still love you, you idiot," Levi scoffed into his shirt, his face still pressed against his chest.

Erwin tightened his embrace, the relief of hearing those words overwhelming. Then he felt Levi start to tense and he panicked for a moment, until he realized what was wrong. "I love you too. I always will, no matter what happens, no matter who tries to take you from me. I won't let them," Erwin swore fervently, realizing Levi needed to hear the words. Levi was incredibly strong, emotionally as well as physically, but so was stone, until it shattered. He was also deceptively fragile.

"Good. Though I guess that means I won't be fucking Liam after all," Levi replied, pulling away.

_I'll kill you both._ Erwin was appalled by the instinctive thought and immediately crushed Levi against him, negating it. He'd never hurt Levi. He knew Levi thought the hug was merely a possessive one when he winced and yelped as Levi deftly escaped his hold by nearly cracking his ribs.

"It serves you right, you overgrown, lumbering ass. Now I know why they call it a bear hug. You almost broke my ribs," Levi accused, glaring into his eyes. Then Levi's eyes widened, and for one of the first times ever, Levi was the one to embrace him. "I'm sorry. I should have let you. I didn't mean to make you that jealous. Don't take it out on Liam, OK? I don't think he's been with anyone since Caity died, and I don't think he's ever been with anyone without her. That he picked me, of all people… Don't hurt him."

Erwin forced himself to relax in Levi's arms. "I won't. If it was anyone else… Do what you can to let him down gently, if you already promised him anything. But don't tell me if you did, because… Just don't."

"I'm sorry I wanted to hurt you," Levi apologized.

Erwin exhaled heavily, relatively certain now the threat hadn't been an empty one. _Damn it._ "I understand why you did. You thought I betrayed you."

"We're good now, right?" Levi asked, unaccustomed uncertainty in his voice.

"We're good," Erwin assured him, briefly tightening the hug. Even if Levi had slept with Liam, Erwin acknowledged it would have been his fault, not Levi's, though he knew he would never have forgiven either of them. "Come on. I'm sure the others are worried about us, and we have a lot to do."

"In a minute," Levi said.

_What…? _Then Levi kissed him, with an intensity that left him breathless, and he responded eagerly, putting his heart and soul into the kiss.

"Now we can go," Levi said, sounding content, for one of the first times ever, since Erwin had known him.

Levi retrieved his knife, sheathed it, and then the two of them headed back to the others.


	22. Chapter 22 - Confessions

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
If you like my Titans stories, you might also like **_**It's Not What You Think**_**, listed under D. Gray-Man. As indicated in the summary, it's a Karneval crossover story (but it isn't in the crossover section). I've also published an original four book high fantasy series featuring a number of gay and bisexual characters, Descent of Kings, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

Chapter 22 - Confessions

Armin had the unsettling feeling that someone was watching him, and turned to find Pixis looking at him, a thoughtful frown on his kind face. It was then that Armin realized how close he was standing to Jean, and the way his hand was touching Jean's arm with familiarity beyond camaraderie. He snatched his hand away guiltily and then grimaced. It was past time he said something to Pixis about his relationships with Hypatia and Jean. "Excuse me Jean. I need to speak to Commander Pixis for a moment."

Jean's mouth opened as if he was about to ask him why, but then his eyes widened in understanding as he glanced at the older man. "Do you want me to come with you?" he volunteered.

"No. Thanks, but it's probably better I do this alone," Armin said resolutely.

"OK," Jean said, letting him go without protest.

Armin crossed the room to the elderly Garrison Commander. "Commander Pixis, sir? I need to speak with you in private about something. Somewhere we can speak freely without being overheard," he qualified.

"Why don't you use my office, as your own is occupied," Karl Schneider offered from behind Armin.

"Thank you, Karl. Come with me, Armin," Pixis instructed.

They exited the conference room and Pixis led him down the corridor to an office only two doors away. Armin had hoped he'd have a few additional moments to compose his thoughts. When they entered, Armin saw the office was nice, and neat, smaller than Pixis's, but just as comfortable looking.

Pixis closed the door behind them. "What's on your mind, son?"

Armin took a deep breath. "It's about Hypatia, sir. My relationship with her. Or former relationship, I should say, except she doesn't know that… We hadn't made any promises, but it was implied that… We kissed, sir, and I'd had a crush on her since we were children and I guess she had one on me, too, although I'd never known that before I saw her again and…

"I intend to tell her as soon as I see her again, about Jean. Jean Kirstein. It's not something I planned, or expected, but… The feelings I have for Jean are different than those I have for Hypatia, only I didn't realize it at first, because I'd never had a girlfriend or boyfriend before, but… I really don't want to hurt her, but I know she will be, because I was her first kiss and…

"I hope you don't hold this against the Corps, sir, because it has nothing to do with any of the rest of them, not even Jean. It's not like he was trying to steal me away or anything and… I'm sorry I let you down, sir. I know how protective you are of Hypatia, and I just want you to know, that I am too, in spite of what happened," Armin finished miserably.

Pixis sighed. "I appreciate you telling me, Armin. Frankly, I can't say I'm very surprised, considering how young you are, and your past, and the responsibilities you now have. I can see you aren't taking this lightly. You're a good man, Armin Arlert, which is part of why I was so pleased you and Hypatia were interested in one another. But there are other good men and women out there, and I'm certain Hypatia will eventually find someone else. Frankly, I'm glad things didn't go further than kissing. I assume from what you said they didn't?" Pixis asked.

Armin felt his face flush. "Um… Normally I wouldn't talk about that, because it's private, but I know you're like a father to her, and no sir. We kissed three times, but we didn't… it wasn't…"

"Good. That's something, at least. I don't think I have to warn you, though, that she will no doubt be upset by this, and you've seen how dangerous she can be. And how protective her men are of her. I'm going to come down to the Library with you, both so I can be there for her, if she needs me, but also so I can help protect you. Also, we need their permission to access the Gate, and I need to help negotiate the terms for a toll, though I haven't discussed it with your Commander yet. As for you, I'm not saying your life is in danger, but we can't have them roughing you up, either, not before your mission."

"I'm more worried about Jean," Armin admitted. "I deserve to get beaten up, but Jean doesn't. He's already been through so much. He was very concerned about Hypatia, and what she'd think and how she'd feel."

"He sounds like a good man. I feel bad for Hypatia, but I 'm glad you've found someone else worthy of you, Armin. And I'm not going to hold this against you or the Corps. Life happens, often in surprising and unexpected ways. It's how we deal with what the world gives us that shows the mettle of the person we are. I still value you as a colleague, and consider myself a friend, to the limited extent I know you."

"Thank you, sir! I'm so glad you understand. I hated knowing I was going to upset her, and disappoint you. I value you too, sir. I want you to know you can still always count on me."

"I'm glad that's settled. Now then, while you're here, I was wondering what you know about Kenny Ackerman, and what happened on the roof," Pixis unexpectedly pried.

Armin froze, the relief he'd just started to feel vanishing. He swallowed. "I know a lot, sir, but I'm afraid I can't say anything to you about him."

He wanted to warn Pixis not to speak his name to anyone, or talk about him, even if he thought he couldn't be overheard, to say that he was as dangerous and as deadly and unpredictable as an Aberrant Titan, but he couldn't, not after what Levi said. For all he knew, Pixis was one of Kenny's spies, and this was some sort of test, though he didn't really think he was.

Pixis sighed. "As bad as that? That's what I was afraid of. I'm glad you've either been warned not to speak to or trust anyone about him, or that you figured it out yourself, Armin. I'd like to see you live to the ripe old age I have, if you can manage it. There's a reason I didn't follow Erwin and Dok up onto that roof. We all have the false roles we play to survive in this deranged world of ours, the masks we hide behind. I'm old, but I still have important things I need to accomplish, things I hope to see happen, before I die."

Armin did his best to keep his face impassive. He'd successfully lied to Levi and the Commander. He hoped he wasn't betraying anything now.

"Good job, son. That was impressive. I hadn't realized you'd come along so far, so quickly. I was concerned before by what a forthright, honest and open individual you were. Those are all admirable traits, of course, but not necessarily those of a survivor. But now I see you just might make it after all," Pixis said both supportively and ominously.

"We should be heading back now, son. We don't want Erwin and Levi to beat us back. It wouldn't do to make either of them nervous. They can't afford not to trust you, Armin, now more than ever. Levi especially. Take care of your Captain, Armin. Do what you can to protect him. You've accomplished impossible tasks before, with the help of your friends. Accomplish this one, too. Keep him safe."

"Yes sir. I will. We will," Armin promised.

"Excellent. I guess it's time to go then, son," Pixis said, heading for the door.

Armin was relieved to see Levi and Erwin when they returned, especially since neither of them seemed to be in pain, which meant they'd hashed out their difficulties peacefully, or at least without physical violence. He'd hoped, as Pixis had, that they'd beat them back, though, especially when he saw Levi's eyes narrow in speculation and suspicion, looking from him to Pixis.

Armin ignored Jean for the moment and walked right up to Levi. "I didn't, and it wasn't about you or Erwin, either. It was personal business. I'm surprised Jean didn't tell you."

Understanding and relief lit Levi's eyes. "Good. We actually just got back, brat. So how did the Old Man take it?"

"He understood, and assured me he didn't hold it against me, or Jean, personally, or the Corps as a whole. He intends to accompany us to the Library." He turned to Erwin. "And before you question whether it's necessary for us to go the Library, it is, Commander. Hypatia and her people are sort of keepers of the Gates, and politically, it would be ill advised for us to attempt an operation like this without at least alerting them, and if possible, seeking their approval, particularly as we will likely be returning the same way we exit. We wouldn't want to return to an ambush or a purposefully blocked passageway," Armin explained. "Pixis said he was going to speak to you about a toll."

"And if Hypatia and her people aren't as understanding as Pixis?" Erwin asked.

"Then I'll make certain her ire and theirs is directed solely at me personally, and not the Corps, or Jean," Armin vowed.

"Good luck with that, brat. Plays and books have been written about women scorned. If she feels you betrayed her, it's going to get ugly," Levi warned. He sighed. "Speaking of which, it looks like it's my turn," Levi said, and he headed for the handsome young man he'd been flirting with earlier, who was standing with Kearney.

0 0 0

"Liam, I need to speak with you for a moment," Levi said reluctantly.

Liam sighed and looked chagrined. "That's not necessary, sair. Captain Kearney and I had a talk, while you were gone. I wasn't aware you were more to the Commander than a valued friend and officer, though I've eyes in me head, and knew you'd always hoped to be more. I'm happy for you sair, especially as I can see it looks like you've patched things up. I never would have flirted with you, had I known. I hope you believe that, sair."

"Of course," Levi said honestly. "I still trust you, Liam, and you know how rare that is, for me. And I never told you, or even let myself feel it back then, but you and Caity… you were both my friends. You still are. I hate myself for not being fast enough to save you. But that's not why… If it wasn't for Erwin, I'd be… but I can't. I'm sorry. I know I've probably fucked your head up, flirting back, but I meant it, when I did it. I didn't trust Erwin anymore, and I was pissed, and needed… but he explained, and it wasn't what I thought. Well it was, but… Fuck. I'm no good at this shit. Look, are we still good? And are you going to be OK?"

"Yes sair. I'm honored you think me a friend. I feel that way too, sair. Caity and I both always did. And it's not your fault, what happened to us. There's not a man alive who could have gotten there quicker than you did, sair. You saved us both. It was the illness that killed her, and the Titan afore it, not you, sair. As for the other… I didn't know I still had it in me, to want someone like that. Now that I know… I feel more alive today than I've felt in half a year's time, and that's thanks to you, sair. I couldn't have said what I did to a stranger, before, but now… Caity wouldn't have wanted me to live the rest of me life alone, or to not live it a'tall. I'll be fine. And I still want to do whatever I can to aid you in your mission, whatever it might be."

"Thank you," Levi said feelingly, the weight of guilt and worry for Liam lifting with his words. "It's time to brief you and Kearney about our mission, and to let you know how you can help us."

The eleven of them, plus Pixis and six of his top men and women, Liam and Kearny gathered around the conference table, pulling in extra chairs, and Levi and Erwin briefed them on their mission and plans. Now, with Kearney and Liam, they might be able to repair the highly sophisticated mechanism within the Gate and open it, instead of blowing it up. And they could use their help analyzing whatever equipment and other materials might be in the Yeager's basement.

They argued whether, in spite of the attention they'd bring in the Underground, they should bring their riding horses and packhorses through the tunnel to Shiganshina, as there might be heavy equipment in Eren's basement that they needed to transport, that would be beyond their ability or encumber them too greatly only on foot. They also debated bringing three rowboats in, so they could travel from the Sigma Gate to the opposite end of the maintenance walk. Finally, they determined that it would be best to infiltrate the Underground in three small groups, led by Eren, Armin and Mikasa, and then to rendezvous at Sigma Gate and for secrecy's sake, bring neither their horses nor boats.

It wasn't until the very end of the strategy session, when they were planning the food and other supplies, that Kearney dropped his verbal bomb. "Ye'll need supplies for 12, though. I'm coming with ye, o' course."

Before Levi could say a word, Liam beat him to it. "You miscounted, Captain. It's 13. You'll not be going on this mission without me."

"No. Absolutely not. You both have lost enough in service to the City," Levi argued.

"With all due respect, you can't stop me, sair, since I'm no longer on the active duty roster," Liam argued. "The Captain now, is another story, but you'd be daft to try. Besides, there's no telling what's in that basement, and how much of it can be removed for study, especially without horses to carry it. Squad Leader Hange is brilliant, sair, there's never been a doubt, but her specialty is more biology and psychology, though she's more than a fair hand at mechanical devices. But an extra pair of eyes or two might mean all the difference. If you don't take us with you, we'll just follow after you. You're stuck with us sair, like it or not," Liam said smugly.

Levi turned to Erwin for help and then frowned. He could see Erwin had weighed their offer and agreed with it. "Asshole," he growled. He would have called him a bastard, but now that he knew that was a touchy word with him, he didn't want to use it.

"Some people think 13 is an unlucky number," Connie griped.

"Don't be silly! I was 13 when I met you and everyone else Connie. 13 is a great number!" Sasha argued enthusiastically.

Liam grinned at her, which made Connie glare.

"Relax, lad. I'm not poaching. She reminds me o' my sister, is all. You're a lucky man," Liam swore.

To Levi's relief, his voice sounded calm and slightly wistful, not sepulchral. Sasha reminded Levi of Caity, too, as well as Isabel. _Damn it._

He almost jumped in surprise when Erwin's hand unexpectedly grasped and squeezed his, under the table. He squeezed back, grateful for the silent support when he needed it most. _Thank fuck I still have Erwin._

"Alright. Can either or both of you still use maneuver gear?" Levi challenged. "Have you tried? We need to know what you're capable of, what limitations if any you might have."

"I can't hold a sword, but I've sword attachments I use in place of the claws which I practice with, with my gear, and Liam can vouch for how well I can fight. I bring them and my gear with me wherever I go. We've seen the Walls are fragile, and I've no desire to be helpless, if they come down again," Kearney stated.

"I should have expected something like that, but I hadn't," Levi admitted. "And you, Liam?"

"I haven't held a sword or used gear since the day I was felled. But I'm healthy again, and limber, and I was almost as good as you, sair. Give me scabbards and gear, and I'll do you proud," Liam swore.

"You realize you both might think you'll be fine, but that you might freeze or run, when you see the Titans again," Hange stated, saying what Levi had been about to.

Liam snorted. "O' course. But then again, so might any of you. There isn't a sane man alive that wouldn't all but pee himself, facing those monsters."

"OK. But what about when you see Yeager Titan? Will you attack and try to kill him?" she challenged.

Liam frowned and looked at Eren warily. "I won't lie and say the lad doesn't unsettle me. But he's part of the Corps. I'm no traitor."

"Alright. But other than Levi and Erwin and me, you don't know any of these men. Would you risk your lives to save them, or watch them die, if you could live because of it?"

"I'd never leave a brother to die. It doesn't matter if I know them personally or not. They're part of the Corps. That makes them my brothers and sisters. I might not be able to save them, but I'd die trying, and take as many of those bastards to hell with me as I could," Liam swore.

"I couldn't have said it better," Kearney agreed.

"Satisfied, Shitty Glasses?" Levi challenged.

"They're good to go," she nodded.

"Good. We'll split into three teams, to infiltrate the Underground. Armin, you, Jean, Erwin, Pixis and I will head to the Library," Levi instructed. "Mikasa, you'll lead Hange, Liam, and Captain Kearney to Sigma Gate, where they'll start work on fixing it, while you guard them. Eren, you'll lead Connie, Sasha, Anders and Bauer in to provide back-up and protection for Mikasa's team. Our team except for Pixis will join you there, after we're done in the Library."

They were going to bring gifts for Hypatia and her men, and let them know they would be either repairing the Gate, or blowing it up. And Armin would try to let her down as gently as possible. Each of them would have be carrying packs with food, water, light sources, weapons and dynamite. Some of Pixis's men would meet their Commander at the Library later, to ensure he reached the surface safely, and other teams of Pixis's men would come down to guard the Gate, once they had opened it. Levi didn't look forward to traveling that tunnel again, but he'd brave his own personal version of hell again, if it meant finally reaching that damned basement. 

While he was discussing supplies with Pixis, he saw Armin looking in his direction, as if making certain he was occupied, which instantly put his guard up. When Armin went to Erwin immediately thereafter, and the two slipped out of the room, Levi knew the little shit was planning to talk to Erwin about him. "Mikasa, detail the route and recommend supplies to Pixis. I'll be back in a few minutes," Levi ordered, and then he headed out after them.

Levi followed the sound of their footsteps, quickly and silently catching up so he could be within earshot, but staying out of sight, pursuing them down various corridors until they were apparently convinced they were alone and out of earshot.

"What's wrong, Arlert? Having second thoughts about Leonhart? Or our mission?" Erwin asked bluntly.

"No sir. I just… I need to make sure you know some things, before we enter the Underground, and particularly the tunnel. So that you can assist me and Eren and Mikasa, if we need help, mostly by keeping the others unaware," Armin stated.

Levi's eyes narrowed. _Is the brat seriously about to rat me out to Erwin?_ His fists clenched. Erwin knew about his phobias, he'd told him, but…

"It's about Levi, sir," Armin said, his voice thick with guilt, but determined. "You need to know how he's going to react in the tunnel. I know you're aware of certain phobias he has, but I'm not certain you know about all of them, and the severity of his reactions."

_That little shit. _Levi almost revealed himself, but he was curious what Armin would say, and how Erwin would react to it.

"I'm sure he'd be upset with me for telling you, even though he'd know I was only doing it to protect him, but… I know you realize that, even though there is a canal full of perfectly good, clean water, he won't drink or wash with it. That there are insects and the fish that eat them, both of which are repellant to him. But I'm not as sure that you know about his claustrophobia. He needs to keep moving, and even when he is, he feels trapped, and it gets exponentially worse the further we are from an exit. He can't be alone down there at all. If there's trouble and he wants to scout ahead, you can't let him. He needs to be with people. And he needs light. There needs to be a light at all times, and a back up source immediately available. And we have to distract him from the insects.

"We all did everything we could to keep his mind off things. Talking helps. Eren actually purposefully acted like an ass while we were in the boat, the last part of the way, to distract him, so Levi would be too busy yelling at him for being an idiot to think too much. Levi really almost lost it at the end there, sir. If something's changed, if Reiner and Bertolt beat us inside and cave in part of the tunnel or ambush us somehow, you can't expect Levi to react the way he normally would."

_Son of a bitch. Eren was a dick on purpose?_ He'd thought he was being particularly annoying because the tunnel was getting to him, too. He'd known he never would have made it out sane, let alone made it out at all, without the brats, but even then…

Armin continued. "I tried to influence your decision before, in the conference room, without success, because you were focused on being inconspicuous and didn't realize there were other factors to consider, but walking will be too slow, sir. We need to either bring our horses in, or carry in two or three rowboats, in case the one that was there is gone or destroyed, since we'll need to fit all of us. Boats would be better than horses, because with their hooves on the stone floor in a tunnel, they'd be really loud and echoing, and it would be much easier to lay an ambush ahead without us hearing or realizing. And the horses would probably die in Shiganshina and attract too much attention from the Titans. And we'd need food for them. With boats, we can travel 24 hours a day, even when some of us are sleeping."

_The little shit really thought this through. He must have been worrying about how I'd react ever since he heard of the mission._

"I see. Thank you for telling me, Arlert. I was aware of most but not all of that, from your reports, and my conversations with Levi. I'll inform Pixis we've determined boats will be the best option after all. Maybe he knows of some in the Underground, in addition to the one that might or might not still be in the canal, so we won't draw too much attention," Erwin stated.

Levi almost pulled back, so he wouldn't be caught listening, but stopped when Erwin unexpectedly continued. "Since I have you out here, what did Levi say to Leonhart, just before she went catatonic? I couldn't hear from where I was standing, but from your expression, you could, and it was obviously disturbing to you."

_Seriously? Erwin couldn't ask me that himself? Although if I'd wanted everyone to know, I'd have spoken louder. Erwin was the last one I wanted to hear me say that._

"I… um… I think you should ask him that, sir," Armin hedged.

_Thank you, Armin. It's good to know at least one of you thinks so._

"I'm asking you, Arlert. In fact, I'm ordering you to tell me," Erwin said firmly.

Levi glared at the corner concealing the two men. _You're going to pay for that, you ass._

"I… yes sir. Although I want you to know, even though it's an order, I wouldn't follow it, if it was anyone but you asking, if I thought it would hurt Levi in any way for you to know. I'd go to prison rather than betray him," Armin averred.

"I see. So if it was ever a choice between supporting me and supporting him, you'd pick him?" Erwin challenged, his voice deceptively mild.

"No sir! I mean… I can't imagine… I wouldn't ever want to betray either one of you, sir, or ever be forced to choose between following one or the other of you. I… if it happened, I'd need to make a judgment call, based on what I knew of the situation, and do what I thought was right. Even if it meant supporting you over him, or him over you, or neither one of you," Armin said, his voice ringing with sincerity.

"I consider myself forewarned. Now, what did Levi tell Leonhart?" Erwin asked again.

Armin exhaled heavily. "He called her a crazy bitch and said she was trying to get him to kill her quickly but he told her… he said he was going to torture her, to make her talk. He was… extremely graphic with his threats. Some of it was what… what Hange did, and threatened to do, but there was more, that I'd rather not repeat. And he said some things I cannot repeat, to you or anyone else, sir," Armin said firmly.

_Fuck. He means about me saying I was taught by an expert. He knows it's Kenny. At least he's smart enough not to have said that part._

"Thank you, Arlert, for bringing the first matter to my attention and keeping the second in confidence. You're dismissed. I'll be back in a few moments," Erwin said, obviously making the connection that the rest pertained to Kenny somehow.

"Yes sir!" Armin said, his voice full of relief.

Levi ducked around the opposite corner of the intersecting corridor and watched Armin go. The kid didn't notice him. Levi was glad Erwin was lagging behind. He wanted to speak to Erwin alone. But why wasn't he following after Arlert?

"You can come out now, Levi. I don't appreciate being eavesdropped upon, by the way," Erwin said mildly.

_Shit._ "When did you realize?" Levi asked, rounding the corner and revealing himself.

"Almost from the beginning, actually. I assume you heard every word. But don't worry. You're not losing your touch. I didn't see or hear you. I… felt your presence. It's a subtle shift, in my breathing, my heart rate, when you're near. I wouldn't have ever noticed it, if Mike didn't point it out to me one day. He said my scent changes too, that my pheromones go into overdrive around you, the way yours do around me. It's not something anyone else but me or Mike would detect," Erwin assured him.

"So you knew I was listening, the entire time. But you still wanted to know what Armin would say about me in the tunnel. And you still asked him what I said to that bitch Leonhart," Levi accused.

"Yes, to both counts. But you allowed him to tell me about you in the tunnel, and to tell me what you said," Erwin replied.

"His response about betraying me was reassuring," Levi commented.

"It was rather enlightening. But I can't imagine it ever coming to where he'd need to choose between us," Erwin stated confidently. "Come on. We need to get Pixis's input on locating two or three rowboats."

0 0 0

Erwin was impressed. It had been less than an hour since their planning session had ended, and they already had all the food and equipment they needed for the journey packed into 13 backpacks. They would also be carrying two satchels, one with gifts for the Library, and another with the toll they planned to offer them for use of the Gate. Erwin hoped Hypatia and her people would be amenable to them using the Gate, because they'd need to proceed with or without their approval, and he really didn't want to go to war with those people. Not that he could afford alienating Pixis by doing so. But also, he'd give his right arm to be able to see the books Arlert had described.

Pixis re-entered the conference room, looking grim, and nearly his age, putting Erwin immediately on alert. "What's wrong? What's happened?" Pixis had been told by his men they'd scavenged up two rowboats, and he'd left to inspect them. _Is something wrong with them, or is it something much worse?_

Pixis sighed and raised his hands in a calming gesture. "The boats are perfect, and there hasn't been any new trouble. But I've just received a report from the men guarding and interrogating William Martin, the man who tried to assassinate you."

Erwin felt his face slip into his habitual mask, bracing himself for the news. "It was personal revenge, wasn't it? For family or friends lost when the Female Titan and Yeager Titan battled?"

Pixis nodded. "His wife and daughter were on their way home from the Market. The little girl was apparently kicked into a wall. Her father was able to recover her body. But his wife… She must have been stepped on. He identified her by her clothes. He said she was wearing the sweater he'd bought her for their tenth anniversary. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that much. I just… I hate this war. The cost in lives, in families, in futures."

Erwin nodded. He hated it too. "What were their names, and how old were they?" Erwin asked.

"I don't think you need to know, Commander," Pixis replied.

"Their deaths are my fault. They're on my soul, mine and Annie Leonhart's, if she has one. They were collateral damage, necessary and acceptable losses, isn't that what I told the military tribunal? But they were also a mother and daughter, and that man's world. I took that from him. Maybe I can't put a face to them, but I can put names and ages to them."

"No, you can't," Levi said from behind him. "The reason you've been able to do this as long as you have, as effectively as you have, is because you think of them only in terms of collateral damage, as necessary and acceptable losses. If you start thinking of each individual civilian or soldier by name, by age, as people with friends and families, not numbers on a balance sheet, you're going to take a gun to your head the way Kirstein tried to. We can't afford that. Not just the Corps, but humanity as a whole. So just add two more tick marks to your mental ledger and move the fuck on," Levi demanded.

Erwin closed his eyes and nodded, and then opened them again. "If we have the boats, we're ready to move out. It's past time we end this damned war."


	23. Chapter 23 - Into the Lion's Den

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:**

**Greek translation:**

_**agapimeni - **_**sweetheart**

Chapter 23 – Into the Lion's Den

Although Armin would be the one to lead the group to Sigma Gate, after leaving Pixis at the Library, Pixis led them to the Library, since he'd walked the same route many dozens, if not hundreds, of times. They were entering the Underground in three separate groups, staggered at 15 minute intervals, so it wouldn't look like they were together, since they were all using the same passageways. Everyone was wearing the long, worn civilian hooded cloaks over their military garb that Pixis had provided, so only the bottom of their boots showed, as their distinctive white pants and riding boots would be an immediate giveaway, but they weren't about to enter without their maneuver gear and swords.

They moved quickly and confidently, but Armin knew it would be a little more difficult for Eren's and Mikasa's groups, since they hadn't marked the first part of the trail, and would be relying on memory. They didn't want to mark it now, in case anyone was watching, lest they draw unwanted attention to themselves.

Armin was pleased to note he would have made all the right turns at the intersections they came to, before he saw the first subtle, small stylized letter "F", for Freeranger, near the floor at one of the many intersections that he had marked on their last trip. The bars of the "F" pointed in the direction they needed to go, and would make it easy for Mikasa and Eren to follow them from that point onwards.

Once they were in the Underground, the belowground city proper, they stuck close to the buildings, as the Lurkers did. This time, unlike the last time, Armin had a much better idea of where the Library was in relation to the other buildings. And then finally he saw it, on the left, looking just as abandoned as it had before.

They approached the building without anyone blatantly observing them. Pixis rapped the owl shaped doorknocker six times, and when the little metal plate in the door slid open, he spoke a variation of the password phrase. "It's Uncle Dorotheos, Armin Arlert, son of Athena, and three others who come seeking knowledge, the key to true freedom. Armin and I both vouch for the latter three with our lives."

This time there was no hesitation before the door swung open, and thankfully, they weren't greeted by pointed pistols this time either, although there were three men in the foyer, all of whom Armin recognized: Jasper, Darrow and Keith. Armin wasn't sure if it was normal that there be so many, or if they'd been nervous seeing five men heading towards them. Keith was one of the men Levi had knocked unconscious, when Hypatia's men had ambushed him, outside Sigma Gate. Armin hoped there wasn't any lingering animosity towards Levi because of it, although once the men had learned who the man with the crutches was, they had been in awe of the fact they'd survived an encounter with Captain Levi.

"And what excitement do you bring this time, Dorotheos?" Jasper asked, with a smile. "Hopefully not as much as a few visits ago. Who are these new guests?"

"It's funny you should mention that, actually. I'm afraid our visit might cause a bit of a ruckus, which is why before the other three doff their hoods, I'd like you to get Hypatia for me, if you would, before we continue with the usual formalities. We of course understand if you feel the need to cover us all with your weapons or wish either Armin or I to act as your hostages," he added calmly, even as a trio of guns appeared in the men's hands, aimed at Jean, Levi and Erwin.

"Stay calm, everyone," Pixis urged.

Armin suspected he was speaking as much to Levi as to the three armed men facing them. "They're not a danger to you!" Armin insisted urgently, with his hands raised so he'd appear non-threatening, even as, though Armin hadn't noticed Levi taking any visible action, all three guns were suddenly re-aimed, directly at Levi.

"Get your fucking guns out of my face before I make you eat them," Levi snarled.

"Please don't antagonize them! Eren, Mikasa and I warned you they'd be suspicious of you three. They're only trying to protect Hypatia and the Library," Armin urged.

"What is going on here? Why are you pointing weapons at Uncle Dorotheos's companion?" Hypatia demanded, entering the room, flanked by Samuel, Joshua, William and Matt, apparently hearing the commotion.

"Holy fuck. Your eyes. You look just like her," Levi said in a hoarse whisper, yanking back his hood, staring at Hypatia, as if mesmerized.

The last time they had met, Hypatia's face had been hidden from Levi's view. Armin wondered who she reminded him of, whether perhaps he had known her when he used to live in the Underground and just didn't realize she actually was the person he'd known, not just someone who resembled her. Or maybe he'd thought she was dead? But she'd seen him clearly before, and hadn't seemed to know him.

Hypatia's eyes widened. "You! Captain Levi," she said in surprise, obviously recognizing him from the first time they met, when even though he was on crutches, he easily defeated so many of her men.

Erwin and Jean doffed their hoods as well, and Hypatia gasped. "And Commander Erwin, is it not?" she asked, stunned.

"Holy crap! Now we have two freaking Commanders down here?" Darrow demanded incredulously.

Hypatia's look of surprise and intrigue turned into a frown, and her eyes narrowed as she looked back at Levi. "It is rude to stare so. You would think you had never seen a woman before. Who is it I remind you of?" she demanded suspiciously, as her men closed protectively around her and glared menacingly at him.

Levi's shocked look vanished, ice replacing it. "No one. It doesn't matter. She's dead."

The belligerence around him increased a hundredfold.

"The consummate diplomat as always," Pixis said with a rueful shake of his head. "It's alright, everyone. Levi's interest in Hypatia is neither threatening, nor of a romantic or sexual nature, but neither is it anyone's business but theirs."

"Could everyone please put their guns away and can we talk in the living area instead? We'd appreciate having a seat, so we can distribute the gifts we brought for you this time, and talk about why we're here," Armin risked speaking up, hoping to change their focus. "We have a very lucrative business proposition for you."

Hypatia's speculative frown at Levi changed to an expression of intrigue, as she turned towards Armin. As soon as she focused on his face, the look in her eyes immediately softened to one of welcome and warmth, and Armin had to fight not to fidget guiltily under her gaze.

"Put away you weapons. You know Uncle Dorotheos would never endanger me, or expose us or the Library without good reason. We need to hear what these men have to say," Hypatia ordered, and the guns were instantly lowered and secreted back upon her men.

"Thank you. We apologize for causing so much commotion and appreciate your hospitality," Erwin said politely.

"Tch. Spoken like a Topsider," Matt scoffed disdainfully.

"One more insult to Erwin and I'll cut out your tongue," Levi threatened, his voice deadly.

"Now Levi, I'm sure none of us need a demonstration of why you were called Levi the Knife when you lived down here. And Matt, I'm certain you know that these men are showing Hypatia and the Library nothing but the respect you all deserve, informing you of the action they are about to take on your turf. We're all friends here," Pixis said with what sounded to be diplomacy.

Armin was impressed. Pixis had managed to both warn and remind Hypatia's men who they were dealing with, while implying they would act with or without their approval. But Hypatia's eyes narrowed and Armin was afraid he'd been too heavy handed.

"It's ill advised to mistake politeness and civility for softness. Just because we live in the sun doesn't make us Topsiders. If you don't want to call him by his title of Commander, or refer to us as Scouts or the Corps, then call us Outwallers, Freerangers, or Titan Killers, take your pick. But just as you deserve respect, so do we," Armin said firmly, leveraging his tenuous relationship with these men.

"Well spoken, Armin. Matt?" Hypatia challenged, to Armin's relief.

"Forgive me my insult, Commander Erwin, Captain Levi, Armin," Matt said with a small nod of his head, and the tension in the room visibly lessened.

"Samuel, Joshua, William, guard the door. The rest of you, come this way," Hypatia commanded, turning her back on them in a show of trust and leading the way. Her men encircled them, escorting them to the living area.

"Have a seat," she ordered.

The once ornate but now stained and crudely repaired mismatched sofas and chairs scavenged from the discards and refuse of the Capital looked the same as before, functional but far from their glory days. As he had done the last time he was here, Armin laid his cloak down on the seat, before sitting upon it, in case of fleas and bedbugs, though thankfully to his knowledge he hadn't picked up any unwanted passengers on his last visit. These men and Hypatia were used to seeing him in maneuver gear and a uniform, after all, so removing his cloak now didn't reveal anything unexpected.

"What happened to your arm? You have injured it further?" Hypatia asked in concern.

Armin mentally winced. He'd forgotten he was wearing the brace. "No. This is just to reinforce my muscle, until it fully heals from the bullet wound," he explained.

Pixis sat beside Armin, likely to protect him from Hypatia's potential wrath, and Jean sat on his other side. Erwin sat across from them, and commanded Levi to sit as his right, when it was clear he planned to remain standing protectively at Erwin's back. The Commander copied Armin's movements, but Levi took off his cloak and draped it over both the back of the sofa and the seat, then flung himself down onto the sofa, arms out along the sofa back and legs crossed, looking as relaxed and at ease as if he owned the room and had the unquestioned loyalty of everyone in it.

He'd crossed his left leg over his right, and Armin realized he was likely also trying to make his own brace less prominent, especially since Hypatia had brought attention to Armin's. Both Hypatia and her men were eying Levi's and Jean's braces in interest, but he saw only respect in their eyes, apparently because they'd survived their various injuries and were still mobile in spite of them.

"Before we talk business, we've brought you a few things we thought you could use," Erwin said smoothly, leading the negotiations. "Armin?" he prodded. Having Erwin offer the gifts and Armin present them was carefully calculated. It was harder to attack someone after they had given you a gift, and you had accepted it.

Armin opened up the satchel he was carrying and pulled out the Corps Medical Kit. "We knew you had the Garrison Medical Kit Commander Pixis had given you, but we stock ours somewhat differently, considering the nature of our respective roles," Armin stated, as he opened the kit and displayed the supplies to treat severe traumatic injury, including medicines to alleviate shock, severe pain, blood loss and infection.

The contents of the kit were met with approval by Hypatia and her men.

Armin unpacked the remainder of his satchel, revealing a quantity of beans, nuts and dried fruit, and laid them out upon the coffee table in front of them.

"Thank you, Armin," Hypatia said.

"Actually, this time it's a gift from the Corps, not me, personally," he corrected, and not only for the sake of their relations with the Corps. Hypatia and her people needed those things and he didn't want her to throw them back in his face later, out of pride, if things went badly, when he told her he wouldn't be seeing her anymore.

"Then thank you, everyone. Now, what is this business proposition you wish to discuss, Commander?" Hypatia asked.

"Arlert has indicated to us that you consider Sigma Gate as part of your turf, that you and your men are keepers of the Gate and the passage beyond. We would like to establish a usage agreement for the Gate and passageway, and to pay you a toll in compensation for that freedom," Erwin offered smoothly.

"And did Armin either forget or neglect to mention that the Gate can no longer be opened from this side?" Hypatia asked shrewdly.

"We have the means to either repair the Gate or remove it, so we can access the passageway beyond," Erwin declared.

That statement was met was with a buzz of surprised comments. Hypatia lifted her hand, and there was instant silence. "There is a reason we did not merely chisel away the Gate, after the mechanism on this side ceased to function. In addition to the inevitable loss of secrecy as to its location, if we were to do so, the only place it now leads is to lands infested with Titans. Once Wall Maria fell, it became unusable regardless. To remove the Gate would leave us all vulnerable to Titan shifter attack, from Shiganshina, if there are additional Titans with the ability to reduce their size and appear human."

"That's true," Erwin agreed. "That is one reason we hope to repair it instead, although either way the Gate will now need to be guarded, whether it is functional again or merely destroyed. There would, after all, be nothing to stop someone on the canal and maintenance tunnel side from figuring out they need to press the owl to open the Gate.

"Of course, since there are four buttons on that side, apparently only one of which opens the Gate, they might press the wrong owl on that side. We're not certain what would happen then, but we believe there are traps which would activate if the wrong button was pressed, assuming they weren't disabled long ago. But if we do need to take extreme measures to remove the Gate as an obstacle, it might reassure you to hear that there are only four Titan shifters to our knowledge, all four of whom are already within the Walls," Erwin said calmly, not mentioning the rumored fifth.

Hypatia's eyes widened. "I do not find that reassuring. Why is it we have never heard of the others? Or are they all not as benevolent as Eren Yeager appears to be? There is a rumor that the Female Titan is one of them. How else could she have bypassed Wall Rose and Wall Sina and entered Stohess?" she challenged astutely.

"That is correct. The other three are in fact enemies of humanity. The Female Titan is currently incarcerated in a Military Police prison, but the other two are still at large, and quite dangerous, even in human form. We also came to warn you about them, as it is quite possible those two plan to use the same Gate as we do, at any time now, to enter Shiganshina," Erwin said grimly.

"And yet you still expect us to allow you to open it or remove it? Why would we do something so foolhardy?" Darrow challenged.

"Because the Titans in question don't need us to open the Gate for them. The Armored Titan, the one that destroyed the Inner Gate in Shiganshina, is one of the shifters, and the Colossal Titan, the one who first breached Wall Maria, is the other," Erwin stated grimly, and this time there was an uproar.

"Silence!" Hypatia commanded loudly, her voice cutting through the chaos, and again, her men instantly obeyed.

"Given the confined space in the Underground, it is doubtful that the Colossal Titan could shift without either crushing himself or bringing the Capital down around his ears. However, if the Gate is still an obstacle, the Armored Titan could easily destroy it. If forced to move so openly, it is likely there would be civilian casualties among some of those of you who live in the Underground, potentially a number of victims, if he causes a cave-in or knocks down a few dozen buildings in the process, which is likely. If it is already open, we believe they will attempt to enter stealthily," Erwin stated coolly.

"You wish us to ambush them for you?" Hypatia scoffed. "Even if we were to be so foolish as to wish to aid you in such a manner, how would we know who they were? They could be anyone. Are we to kill any stranger who attempts to access the Gate?"

"No. Although we now know who the three enemy Titan shifters are…" Erwin began, and this time pandemonium broke out in the room.

Hypatia had to stand up and yell for silence before her men finally quieted.

"Commander Pixis's men are the ones who will be guarding the Gate from here onwards and who will attempt to stop them," Erwin finished calmly, as if he hadn't been interrupted. "He's heading back to the surface after our meeting, and a number of men from his Special Forces squads are going to come down in disguise and infiltrate the area. They know who to look for, and will do their best to capture or, if necessary, kill them. We did not wish to take such a large military action without warning you, lest you assume you or the other Underground dwellers were the target."

"Capture them? When Wall Maria fell, hundreds of thousands died, including the men your vaunted military sent out as cannon fodder, or more accurately, Titan fodder. Hundreds of thousands were eaten. Those monsters need to die!" Matt demanded, fuming.

"They are far more valuable alive. We need to know what the Titans' motives are: why they attacked Wall Maria after a hundred years of relative peace, how they became shifters – the list of things we don't know is endless. Intelligence, not battles, ends war," Erwin argued.

"You agree with this, Armin, Uncle? That these murderers should live?" Hypatia challenged.

"Yes. There's so much we don't know about why we're enemies, why the Titans eat us, where they came from, how to stop them. The quickest way to learn what we need to know is by questioning them," Pixis agreed.

Armin nodded his agreement. He didn't add that even now, he didn't want to see Annie, Reiner and Bertolt killed. There was no way these people would ever see them as the woman and men he knew, and not monsters.

"So how do you propose to open the Gate, and what do you offer in payment?" Hypatia challenged.

"We have three mechanical geniuses with us who are going to attempt to repair the Gate. If that fails, we are going to blow it up with a powerful explosive one of them was responsible for reinventing," Erwin explained.

"Dynamite," Pixis said succinctly.

Hypatia's eyes widened. "You have recreated dynamite? And therefore nitroglycerin?" she asked eagerly, her eyes burning with the same scientific fire and thirst for knowledge as Hange's.

"Yes. And as for the tolls for usage of the Gate and passageway, we've brought a number of bottles of fine quality alcohol, which we were told are worth more than their weight in silver down here," Erwin stated, motioning to Jean.

Jean opened his satchel and pulled out the six carefully wrapped bottles he'd been transporting.

The eyes of everyone but Hypatia lit with eagerness at the sight of the expensive liquor.

"You make an interesting offer. But if we say no, that we will not allow you to use the Gate, what then?" Hypatia challenged.

"Regrettably, humanity cannot afford a negative answer. The fate of our race rests upon our use of that Gate and underground passageway. We do not wish to fight you, but we cannot allow anyone to keep us from our goal. It is our sincere hope that you will see the importance of our endeavor and not attempt to stand against us," Erwin said calmly.

Hypatia looked from him to Pixis.

"You know I'd never allow them to hurt you, honey. But by the same token, for the good of us all, I could not allow you to stand in their way, nor could I allow you to hurt them. I hope you'll see the benefit in cooperating, that it will be lucrative for you and your people. The situation as it stands is untenable. We need that tunnel," Pixis said intently.

"The payment you bring is for one roundtrip use, correct? You leave and return. If you were to use it again, you would pay again," Hypatia challenged.

"Yes," Erwin agreed. "We aren't trying to take advantage here, or use military might to force you to comply. Even if we wanted to, we can't afford to begin fighting divisive battles with other humans, when we have such a powerful and dangerous mutual enemy. And of course, if you wished to specify a different form of payment of equal value next time, if there was an additional need, that would certainly be agreeable to us," Erwin proposed.

"Then we accept you payment. You may begin work on opening the Gate," Hypatia agreed.

"Excellent. Thank you. But before we go, Scout Arlert has a personal matter he needs to discuss with you, in private," Erwin stated.

Hypatia looked over at Armin and started to smile, but her smile faltered, as she looked into his eyes, and her expression changed to a concerned frown. "Come with me, Armin," she commanded, standing.

Armin followed Hypatia through the building down an unfamiliar hallway and to a room. He balked in the doorway and his face flushed as he realized she'd brought him to her bedroom.

"Close the door. We will have privacy here," she explained.

He complied and then stood facing her awkwardly.

"From the look upon your face, you did not want to speak with me in private so that you might kiss me," she said astutely.

Armin swallowed and shook his head. "No. I need to speak with you because… I didn't plan for it to happen, and I know it's going to hurt you, and I'm truly sorry, I feel terrible, but…"

"You have found someone else," she stated coolly, succinctly cutting through his hesitant explanation.

Armin nodded miserably.

Hypatia sighed. "I suppose I should be angry with you, but you already look so miserable that I doubt I could say anything that might make you feel worse. So who is she, this woman who has stolen your heart? A Scout, or a civilian?"

"A Scout. But, um, he's not a woman," Armin said sheepishly, feeling his face flush.

Her eyes widened. "Captain Levi?"

It was a valid assumption, since Armin had confessed his earlier crush on Levi to her. "No. Someone else. It's not his fault. He's really nice, and was upset I hadn't told you yet, even though it just sort of happened and… someone was in love with him, but he didn't realize it until after he was dead and… the two of us, we just… I'm really sorry," Armin apologized.

"I hope he is a good person, this man, that he is worthy of you: intelligent and a lover of books and the world outside the Walls. I read your grandfather's book, the one you told me inspired you so," Hypatia said forthrightly.

"He is. Very intelligent, a natural born leader, and also brave, although he doesn't see himself that way, and kind and…" Armin blushed again, biting back on the rest, realizing it probably wasn't something she'd want to hear.

The right side of Hypatia's mouth quirked up into a small smile. "And handsome, yes?"

Armin nodded mutely. He should have known she'd realize what he was about to say.

"I would like to meet him sometime, to ensure he truly is worthy of you," Hypatia said, to his surprise.

"Um… actually, you already have. His name is Jean Kirstein. He's the other man with us," Armin admitted, belatedly hoping it wasn't a mistake, that she wasn't plotting some sort of revenge and he'd just given her the opportunity she needed.

Her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed, reminding Armin more than a little of a hunting cat, making him think he'd made a potentially deadly mistake, telling her Jean was here.

"Ah. You both hid it well, this affection. Although I am sure I will see it in his eyes, when we return to the room, especially if I were to enter first and delay your return," Hypatia said craftily.

"Please don't. After what happened to Marco… It would be cruel. And dangerous, not because of Jean, but because of Levi. He's very protective of me, you've seen he is, and he's… unusually on edge, today. If he thought you'd hurt me…" Armin warned hesitantly.

"Do you know who it is I remind your Captain of? Why he stared at me so?" she asked curiously.

Armin bit his lip, then spoke, weighing his words carefully. "Not exactly, but Captain Levi is a significant person to you, though I don't think you realize it yet. He or Pixis might want to speak with you too, but they should be the ones to tell you."

She smiled ruefully again. "I am certain Uncle Dorotheos will wish to speak with me, if nothing else than to console me for the loss of my first love." She said the words easily, as if they didn't cause her pain, but there was sadness or maybe wistfulness in her expressive golden eyes.

"I never expected to find someone else. I certainly wasn't looking. And… I hope you don't hate me. I mean, it doesn't sound like you do, but…. I hope we can still be friends," he said hopefully.

"Of course. As you said, you were not trying to harm me. You were not trifling with my affections. Life happens, Armin. We of the Underground know that far better than you above might ever hope to. Life is far too short, and one must seize whatever happiness one finds. But you cannot cling to what no longer exists. I have no wish to become bitter and vindictive, a shrew incapable of giving or receiving love," Hypatia stated sincerely.

Armin swallowed hard, and his eyes welled with tears. "You're so wonderful, Hypatia, so amazing. I know you're going to find someone who deserves you. Thank you for not hating me."

"Thank you for your honesty. Now come, or the others will begin to worry, particularly Uncle Dorotheos. I am known for my temper, as you saw when you first kissed me. We do not wish to alarm him, or your Captain. Oh. But first, I have something I must return to you," she said, and headed for her nightstand.

Armin recognized his grandfather's book. "Actually, I'd like you to hold onto it for now. It might get damaged or destroyed on our mission. It's safe with you. And if I don't come back for it, please either keep it or add it to the collection downstairs."

She scowled at him. "You will come back for it," she commanded, as if she could order him not to die.

"I'll certainly try," he agreed quietly.

0 0 0

Levi's eyes flicked from the hallway Armin had disappeared down, to Kirstein, to the opposite exit, and then to each man in the room. He wasn't the only one who was anxious. _If she hurts him… family or not…tch. Like I could ever touch her, with those eyes. Damn it. Life Lesson 5: Family makes you vulnerable. _

Levi fought to appear unconcerned, though he was all but ready to jump out of his skin. _ I need to talk to her. To warn her about Kenny, and somehow make her believe me. Which means I'll have to bring Pixis in with me and warn him too, and hope they both don't discount what I tell them. _

_Fuck. I'm going to have to trust the Old Man not to get himself killed. I'm going to have to tell them Kenny is the Number's Killer and hope they both have brains enough to stay away from him._

At the soft whisper of a footfall, Levi's eyes snapped to the hallway. And there was Armin, looking none the worse for wear, save for the brightness of his eyes. _He doesn't look like he's been crying, but he looks like he came close. She, on the other hand, looks fine._

Hypatia raised a brow at Levi. "Stop glaring so. He is unharmed. Come, Captain Levi. I believe you and I have a personal matter to discuss as well. And before the anger in your eyes grows, Armin said nothing of it to me, other than that he thought you wished to speak with me."

Levi stood. "Come on, Old Man. You need to hear this as well. There's more that you don't know," he told Pixis.

Pixis looked suitably intrigued, as he rose.

Unlike with Armin, Hypatia waved Levi down the hall in front of her. _She doesn't trust me. Good. I wouldn't trust me either._ Levi preceded Pixis. He wasn't about to have an unknown quantity at his back.

"Stop at the third door on the right, and enter," she commanded.

He complied, entering the room warily, scanning it expertly for danger. There was none, but he also hadn't expected they'd be led to her bedroom.

"No one would dare try to overhear us here," she assured them, as she entered, closing the door behind her.

"You should never sleep in a room with only one exit," Levi chided.

She smiled enigmatically. "Just because there are no windows, or other visible doors, does not mean there is a single exit," she said smugly.

He scanned the room thoroughly once again, but didn't see any telltale signs on the walls or floor. "It's well hidden," he conceded.

"I am touched you are so interested in my safety. Is it because of Armin or Dorotheos?" she challenged.

"Pixis. And you. That's why I'm here. To warn you. I understand you call Pixis your uncle, because he's so much older than you, but you're really his cousin. That makes you my cousin as well, through my mother." He watched her eyes widen at the revelation.

"Her name was Melena. She died down here, years ago. The resemblance is astonishing, even without your eyes, but with them… There is a man who was obsessed with my mother. It's his fault she's dead. He lied to my real father and got us kicked out of our home, first onto the street, and finally belowground. But his plan backfired. She was stabbed to death in an alleyway in the Underground, before he could claim his prize.

"I don't know if Pixis realizes who caused her death or not, but I've seen and heard he knows enough to be wary of this person. I'm going to give you his name and describe him, so you know to stay away from him. But you need to understand that talking about him to anyone, even merely mentioning his name, can get you killed. I know you're tough, that you don't scare easily, I've seen it. But you need to be scared of this man. You need to be terrified, because only then will you be careful enough. This man I am going to reveal to you is a psychopath and sociopath who's tortured more than 150 people to death and killed untold numbers of others. He's the Numbers Killer.

Her eyes widened, as did Pixis's.

"His name is Kenny Ackerman. He is the most sadistic, insane son of a bitch you'll ever meet. He is ruthless and merciless and more cruel than you can imagine, and if he ever sees your face, or learns of your relation to Melena, you'll wish he only took days to torture you to death.

"He's a Captain in the Military Police, the leader of the First Interior Squad. He has specially adapted 3D maneuver gear that's far more silent than the standard model. He's an expert with any weapon every forged, but his specialty is bladed weapons, both swords and knives. Though he's just as deadly unarmed, and he fights dirty, to maim and to win. He never leaves live enemies. He can pick any lock ever made and even without the gear can climb up walls you'd swear were unscalable, like a spider.

"He's well over a head taller than me, nearly as thin but with more muscle, with short straight black hair and black eyes. He's in his 40s or 50s, but has the strength and agility of a man half his age. He is deadly and relentless and won't stop until he has you. You need to stay away from him."

He turned to Pixis. "And so do you, Old Man. You will never be able to capture him. He has spies everywhere. He'll know every move you're planning. You can't trust anyone with his name, not even your inner circle. He'll hear you, and then you'll be dead, and I'll be next. You've likely only been safe from him so far because your family abandoned my mother, and because of it, he didn't realize my mother had any living relatives."

"We didn't abandon her. We thought she was dead. She disappeared nearly 35 years ago. Before you were born. We looked, but never found a trace of what became her. And then I was the only one left, other than Theon and Hypatia," Pixis said sadly. "How long have you known Ackerman is the Numbers Killer?"

Levi fought not to reflexively slap his hand over Pixis's mouth, or slip a knife into his heart, hearing him speak those words aloud. _Since I was seven and he came back to where I was chained, covered in blood, and gloated about what he'd done and promised he'd do the same to me if I ever betrayed him. _"It doesn't matter," he replied in a cool monotone, forcing down a shiver of fear. _I hate still being afraid of that fucker. I hate that he knows that I am. _

"I assume you're aware that he's Mikasa Ackerman's uncle?" Pixis asked.

Levi exhaled heavily. "Fuck. He said he was, but he's also an expert liar. He's a master manipulator. You can't believe a word he says, but assuming everything he says is a lie is just as deadly."

"You make him sound more than human. He is merely a man, and as such, has weaknesses and strengths like any other man," Hypatia calmly claimed.

Levi wheeled on her, infuriated. "You haven't listened to a word I've said! That twisted fucker thinks he's a god, but he's like an Aberrant Titan. You'll never know what he thinks, how he thinks, what he'll do next. You think you've pleased him, and he slits your throat. You think he's going to kill you and he gives you a bottle of wine, one that isn't poisoned. He's impossible to please and completely unpredictable. I lived with that fucker for eleven years and spent the next fourteen analyzing everything he ever did and I still don't understand him. You can't understand crazy."

"That makes 25 years. How old are you, son?" Pixis inquired gently.

"Don't look at me like that. I was seven when he got his hooks into me, but I'm 32 now, and he lost his power over me at 18 when I challenged him and lived," Levi snapped.

Hypatia and Pixis shared a look that made Levi want to crack their heads together. He could all but hear their thoughts, about how even grown victims were always afraid of their abusers, the sympathy, the pity. _Damn it!_

"Fine. Yes, I'm still afraid of him. I fucking told you I was. I'm afraid of the Titans, too. I'm afraid of anything stronger than me that can kill me. You both like books so much, read some psychology. It's called healthy fear. It's why I'm still alive. It doesn't mean I don't try to kill the Titans and Kenny every chance I get, whenever I see them. One of these days I'll either be good enough, or I'll be dead. If you don't take Kenny as a serious enough threat because you think I'm still that pathetic, scared, weak kid I was, and he takes you out because of it, that's all on you. I tried to warn you, knowing he'll kill me for it. So fuck you both, I'm done here," Levi snarled, storming for the door.

He'd stripped his soul bare for them, every nerve was raw and exposed, and it had all been for nothing. They were both going to die. _I should have kept my fucking mouth shut, and just let Kenny have her._

Pixis body blocked him from the door, moving with surprising speed, and Levi almost took him out. "You're not Kenny, Old Man. I can snap you in half in a heartbeat. Move," he demanded, barely restraining himself from attacking, keeping half his attention on Hypatia, unsure how she would react, and not trusting her.

"I know I'd lose pitted against you, Levi," Pixis said, surprising him by using his name instead of calling him "son" as he had before, either remembering what happened the last time he'd done so or purposefully to manipulate him now.

"I know my strengths and weaknesses, and my limitations. Like you, that's what's kept me alive this long, and I'm over twice your age. I'm not keeping you from going. I just don't want you leaving us both feeling we're enemies. We both heard every word. We're both still processing it. That doesn't mean we'd react in the wrong way if Ackerman came through that door right now. I know you've had a particularly shitty day. I'm sorry you mistook sympathy and compassion for pity and doubt.

"I won't tell my men about Ackerman, not even those I implicitly trust, because out of honor and pride, they'd try to catch or kill him, both for justice for those he's killed and to protect me. But because you told me, I now know who and what he really is. Personally, I never liked the man, though I took pains to never show it. I trust my gut. It's kept me alive all these years. Now I have proof to go along with that instinct for self-preservation. If you will recall, I didn't go onto the roof with Dok and Erwin. There was a reason for that. I won't say Ackerman is as fooled by my drunken buffoon act as most of the rest of them, but there's a chance he might still underestimate me as a threat because of it. I'd like to keep it that way. And Hypatia isn't a fool. She won't take what you said lightly, will you, _agapimeni_?" Pixis prodded.

"No, Uncle. Thank you, Cousin, for seeking to protect us both. Forgive me for appearing as if I did not understand or appreciate your warning. I will tell no one, and I will be cautious. I too have survived when others have not. I will not make a foolhardy choice that will get me killed," Hypatia promised.

Some of the rage burned away, but Levi was still angry and on edge. "OK. Good. We're done here. We need to go."

"One final thing. Just tell me if I was right about my theory, if you know, that the numbers he used were based on some twisted version of the Ten Commandments," Pixis asked.

Levi fought a shudder at the memory of when he first heard them, the day when his world ended, his mother's blood still on his hands and clothes, and Kenny's boot emphasizing every one of his godforsaken Commandments. After all these years, that fucking megalomaniac's taunting and gloating voice as he nearly kicked him to death still rang in his ears:

_1\. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me._

_2\. Thou shalt not make any image of me._

_3\. Thou shalt not speak my name._

_4\. Six days thou shalt work for me. The seventh may thee keep the fruits of thine labor._

_5\. Honor me as your true father._

_6\. Thou shalt kill upon my command._

_7\. Thou shalt fuck upon my command._

_8\. Thou shalt steal upon my command._

_9\. Thou shalt lie and betray upon my command._

_10\. Thou shalt covet everything thou seest, unless it is mine._

Levi gritted his teeth and nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Forgive me, s… Levi. I should have known better than to ask. I won't ever say another word about that man, unless your life depends on me doing so," Pixis apologized.

Levi nodded again, and this time, Pixis stepped aside, and let him pass.

By the time Levi reached the end of the hallway, he was fully back in control, and Pixis and Hypatia were right behind him, so her men wouldn't worry. "We're done, Erwin. Time to go," Levi said levelly, hoping Erwin wouldn't realize how much his gut was still churning from talking about that fucker.

The concern in Erwin's eyes changed to relief, as their eyes met, and Erwin rose, without any of the platitudes he would usually say after concluding either a business transaction or military maneuver, apparently not wanting to misspeak.

"Thanks for everything, Hypatia, everyone," Armin said for them.

"You as well. It has been a fruitful and enlightening visit," Hypatia replied.

Pixis held out his hand to Erwin, and Erwin shook it. "Good luck, son. I won't be so foolish as to tell you to be careful. But I expect to see you and your men back at my base for a debriefing, since this is a joint military operation."

"We look forward to it," Erwin said with a confident nod.

"Stay safe Old Man, Hypatia," Levi found himself saying.

"You too, Levi," Pixis said, again calling him by name.

"You also," Hypatia agreed. Then she turned to Armin. "Stay safe, Armin."

"I'll try," he promised.

Unexpectedly, she turned to Jean. "And you, Jean Kirstein, protect him, and never throw away the gift you have been given."

"I won't return without him, and I'll never intentionally hurt him," Jean promised, meeting her eyes.

She nodded solemnly, apparently satisfied.

Then the four of them headed back to the door, to rendezvous with the other two teams.


	24. Chapter 24 - Test of Courage

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 24 – Test of Courage

Jean exhaled heavily in relief once they were down the street from the Library, and turned to Armin. "Well that went better than I expected. It looks like Hypatia took the news surprisingly well, considering what she said to me, and the fact that we didn't hear any screaming, and you look like you're in one piece."

"She was a lot more understanding than I thought she'd be," Armin admitted.

"I'm glad we were able to conclude our business amicably. I would have liked to have gotten a look at their collection, but I didn't expect to see it this time, and we didn't really have time for that. I'm hoping once they trust me enough that I'll get to see it," Erwin said wistfully.

Jean wondered whether the Commander was really that confident he'd survive their mission, or just saying so for their sakes.

"We all will," Levi agreed, his voice steel.

Levi and Erwin fell back behind them and started speaking in more muted tones to one another, apparently trusting Armin to lead them to the Gate.

Armin turned to Jean, as they walked, and pulled closer. "About what you said. If something happens, and I die, it's not your fault. I want you to come back, even if I don't."

Jean looked into Armin's intense blue eyes, his mouth going dry and heart beginning to race at the thought of Armin dying, of losing someone else he loved. He felt a chill, reassuring grip on his right shoulder and almost jumped. He hadn't felt Marco's presence in a while.

To his surprise, Armin did jump, his head jerking to his own left shoulder.

_Holy crap. Did Marco touch Armin too? Does Armin feel him? _The thought of Marco walking behind them, reassuring them both, made warmth bloom in his heart. He'd wondered before whether Marco might be jealous of Armin, but now it was as if Marco was giving them his blessing.

"What's wrong, brat?" Levi challenged.

"Nothing. I just… Jean just surprised me with something he said," Armin lied convincingly.

Levi smirked at them both, obviously thinking he'd been flirting, then continued his conversation with Erwin.

"You felt him too, didn't you? Marco's hand on your shoulder," Jean asked softly.

Armin's eyes widened in shock. "Marco? But he's… oh God. You mean before… and now? I sort of thought I was crazy."

"You've felt him before?" Jean asked in surprise.

"Um… I'm not sure who it was. It was after we heard the gunshot in Stohess, when you were with Erwin, Sasha, Connie and the others, and I was worried you might have been hurt or killed. I felt a hand on my shoulder, but when I looked, no one was there, and my horse freaked out, and Levi's tried to bite my shoulder and… I thought it might have been Randall, or you if… How do you know it's Marco?" Armin asked, looking more intrigued than disturbed, and not at all afraid.

"It just… feels like it's him, if that makes any sense. I'd sensed… something… for a while, but then, after I read his letter in the stable and um… you know, tried to do something stupid… that's the first time I actually felt him. Usually I just feel really cold but then really warm, but sometimes he touches me, like he would if he were… um… still alive," Jean said awkwardly, half expecting Armin to go running to Levi and Erwin and warn them he was crazy.

To his surprise Armin gave him a relieved looking smile. "I'm so glad! Not that he's here," he hastened to add. "I mean, not that I don't like him, but... that part worries me, that he isn't in heaven, where he belongs. But I mean, that he doesn't hate me, for us being together. Kissing and stuff. He… oh my gosh! You don't think he actually watched us, do you?" Armin asked blushing.

Jean shook his head. "I'm sure he wouldn't. He was always really shy and quiet and respectful. Although he seems a little different now, a little more assertive. And sometimes he gets angry, like when the MPs attacked me and Sasha and Connie, and… um… one other time. But he's usually still very amenable. He went with Sasha, to protect her on her scouting mission, when I asked him to, and went with you and the others in Stohess, when I asked."

"You asked him to protect me? That's why he was with me? Then, do you think if we… or you… asked him to move on, he would? If he's here, that must mean there's some kind of afterlife, right? Heaven of some type? He deserves that. Eternal peace and happiness," Armin said sincerely.

"But there has to be a reason he's still here, right? I mean, we don't know for certain why he died. Sure, we suspect it had something to do with Annie, because she had his maneuver gear, and she must have taken it off him before he died, because it wouldn't have stayed intact after… and then, when we were talking about questioning her…"

He hadn't ever been afraid of Marco's ghost, until that moment in the conference room, when they'd been discussing questioning Annie and Hange had sounded like she was defending Annie because Annie hadn't tried to kill Armin those first couple of times she could have. The blizzard of rage he'd felt Marco exert when he was angered at the MPs was like a mild snow flurry compared to what he felt then.

"_What about Marco? She killed him, didn't she? She stole his gear, and he died. Whether she killed him herself or tricked him somehow, or just knocked him out and took it, whatever the details, he wound up dead, half eaten."_ He'd all but yelled that at them, and he couldn't keep from shaking, partly from cold and partly from fear.

Jean shivered, just thinking about Marco's fury. Marco seemed to be growing stronger, actually able to touch them now. He must be so lonely, so lost, unable to speak or be seen, but still desperately craving company. _What if Marco loses control again, and this time actually hurts me, or Armin? What if he actually kills one of us, by accident?_ Jean swallowed, hard. _Or maybe even on purpose, so he isn't so alone anymore? _

There was a sudden lance of resonating, freezing pain in Jean's chest, not as if an icicle had been stabbed through his heart, but as if it had pierced Marco's, and suddenly the warm hand was gone from his shoulder, and the reassuring presence evaporated like water steaming off of hot metal.

"Shit, fuck, Marco, no, wait!" Jean whispered anxiously, not wanting to alert Levi and Erwin, but not wanting Marco to feel guilty for frightening him, or worse, to feel betrayed. Marco didn't deserve either.

_I'm sorry! I'm such an idiot! You were the one to get Levi, so he could stop me from killing myself, so he could save me, and I know you'd never hurt Armin. Please forgive me. Please come back,_ Jean begged silently, terrified he'd never feel Marco again, that now he'd maybe be trapped here, lost and alone forever.

0 0 0

"What's wrong?" Armin asked anxiously. Marco had unexpectedly let go and Jean looked terrified. "What happened? Why did he leave? You just stopped talking and then…"

Armin yelped as a strong hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around, exhaling in relief as he realized it was Levi and not Marco, then tensing again, when he saw his scowl.

"What the fuck's going on? Why are you two freaking out?" Levi demanded, his eyes darting everywhere, looking for nonexistent danger.

"It's nothing, sir. Memories. Armin and I were just talking about some of our classmates from the 104th, the ones who didn't make it," Jean supplied, obviously not wanting Levi to know more.

"I could see Jean was getting upset, and I guess I was more than I realized too. I told him he shouldn't be thinking about negative things like that before the mission. We're sorry we worried you," Armin lied smoothly, having much more experience now lying to Levi than Jean.

Levi's eyes narrowed, but Armin held his ground, refusing to be intimidated. Even if Levi had told him to tell him if he was ever being bothered by ghosts, it wasn't something he wanted to talk to Levi about, especially as there was nothing Levi would be able to do anyway. It would just make him worry. And Armin suspected from what Levi had told him that he had more than his own share of ghosts haunting him, or at least, had at one point.

"You need to stop drawing attention to us and you need to be focused on your surroundings, not each other. We're approaching the Gate," Levi chastised.

"Yes sir. Sorry, sir," they both stated in unison.

Levi was right. But as soon as he could, he'd talk to Jean about what had happened.

When they turned into the alley in front of the Gate, Armin half expected to see the stone door already ripped away, that Reiner and Bertolt might have figured out where the Gates were from the incomplete map they had stolen, but it still looked intact, though no longer abandoned. Hange, O'Seanessey and Captain Kearney were there, as planned, though he didn't see Mikasa. It also looked like they'd beaten Eren's team to them as back-up. "Where's Mikasa?" he asked Hange in concern.

She grinned and pointed to a nearby rooftop. "She gave us the signal someone was coming, but then let us know you were some of ours."

"Good. What's the verdict?" Levi asked.

"We only just got here, Levi. Remember, we left 15 minutes after you. Things must have gone well on your end. I see the two satchels are gone, and Armin doesn't look in need of a medic," she said bluntly.

"She took it surprisingly well," Armin agreed, not mentioning Hypatia by name out in the open, even though it didn't look like anyone was close enough to hear.

"Kearney?" Levi prodded.

"I can't wait to get this beauty open. I love a challenge," Kearney said with a grin.

"I'm going to take the opposite roof and keep an eye out for trouble. Kirstein, Arlert, take up position across the street, there and there," Levi indicated.

"Yes sir," they replied, and then headed out as instructed.

0 0 0

Eren let out a sigh of relief when he finally saw the familiar street. He'd made one wrong turn up above, before the Freeranger signs and a couple more once they'd hit the Underground proper. He'd been dreading the Captain might have to come look for them.

He jumped back and drew his swords before he realized the figure that unexpectedly landed in front of him was Levi.

"Well you missed spotting me, but at least you're not asleep. Where the hell have you been, brat?" Levi demanded.

Eren felt his face flush. "I took a wrong turn above, and two more down below, sir," he replied honestly and respectfully.

"Tch. At least you made it in one piece," Levi conceded.

"Was someone injured?" Eren demanded.

"Calm down brat. No, everyone's fine, even Armin. His girlfriend took it better than we expected. And we made our agreement without a hitch. Our three mechanical geniuses have already partially disassembled the mechanism behind the owl. It looks like we might not need to resort to the dynamite after all," Levi assured him.

Just then, there was a familiar grating sound.

"They did it!" Eren said excitedly.

"Unless someone's coming out," Levi cautioned suspiciously, grappling into the nearest building and flying forwards, towards the alley.

But when Eren followed suit, they saw Kearney, O'Seanessey and Hange all grinning, and then Kearney wrapped Hange in a hug. "Your hands are a thing of beauty, lass."

Unbelievably, Hange blushed. "So are yours," she said sincerely, which would have been ridiculous coming from anyone else's mouth, considering the fine clawed attachments replacing the maimed man's hands, but knowing Hange, she likely truly thought so.

"We make a grand team, the three of us," Kearney said proudly. "You did well lad, too, but I don't think you'd appreciate a hug, at least, not from me," Kearney said with a laugh and a wink at O'Seanessey, as the stone door continued to grind along the alley floor.

"You did a little too good a job, actually. Pixis's men aren't here to guard the Gate yet," Erwin added.

"Then it's a lucky thing for you my men and I already are," a familiar voice said unexpectedly from the building on the left.

Eren saw Levi's eyes narrow as Hypatia stepped out of the shadows. "Fuck. I searched that building. How did you get past my spotters?" Levi accused.

"This is our home ground, and in all fairness, your men are used to looking for targets significantly larger than we are. If it helps your pride any, getting past your men was actually unexpectedly a challenge. They're quite good," she said magnanimously.

"Ye did not tell me you knew a Queen of the Sidhe, Captain Levi, sair," O'Seanessey said half reverently, half flirtatiously. "Liam O'Seanessey, a grand knight of the Scouts," he intoned, introducing himself with an absurd bow and flourish of his hand.

Eren saw Hypatia's calculating golden eyes widen in surprise and spark with interest, and her lips curl slightly in amusement. _Good. If she likes O'Seanessey, she'll leave Armin and Jean alone._

0 0 0

Armin was surprised and impressed by O'Seanessey's courtly bow, which was done quite elegantly. _Is he actually from a noble family? _

"You'd be risking much, as a mortal, were I truly a Queen of Faerie," Hypatia chided. "But it appears it is you who are truly one of the Fae Folk among us, using your magic to open a gate between realms. A leprechaun perhaps?" she teased.

The playful whimsy of her words made Armin smile, as did the expression on O'Seanessey's face. He looked completely smitten. But then the jarring end of the grinding brought everyone's attention firmly back to the Gate.

"Nay, trickster might I be, but then I would have a leg of solid gold, instead of cold iron. But still, will ye bless me with yer name, lass, afore I head off into the great beyond? I go to slay giants, a respectable trade for a noble warrior such as meself," O'Seanessey stated, as the others headed for the Gate, bearing the two rowboats, the ones Mikasa's and Eren's teams had carried into the Underground.

"Return safely and I'll gift you my name, and show you a grand sight any lover of ancient mechanisms would sell his soul to see," Hypatia offered impulsively. Then she turned to Erwin. "Go, Commander. My men and I will guard the Gate until the Garrison arrives."

"Thank you. We're in your debt," Erwin said, with a shallow bow of his own.

To Armin's surprise, Levi saluted Hypatia and her men, and then wordlessly entered the Gate, preceding Erwin, as Kearney quickly gathered up his tools, with Hange's assistance.

Once the thirteen of them who were going were inside the passageway, with two lit oil lamps, their packs, and the boats, Levi depressed the same owl they'd used to open the Gate weeks before, and closed the Gate behind them. The squeaking whine of the metal cable running through the pulleys and the rushing water were almost comforting in their familiarity, for Armin at least. But Armin saw Levi visibly tense as the stone Gate sank in flush with the rest of the wall.

Levi gritted his teeth and looked suspiciously at the plastic boat that was now upside down on the dock, instead of in the water where they'd left it. Hypatia had told Armin during their last visit that she and her men had scavenged the supplies they'd left aboard, which had been more than they could carry in their packs, from the cart they'd abandoned at the other end of the underground canal.

"Eren, Jean, Mikasa, help me lift the boat so we can clear it of insects," Armin instructed, knowing that was what was upsetting Levi. Armin was grateful when Erwin diverted Levi's attention, by speaking with him.

They flipped the boat, using the lit lamps to scare away the multitude of insects they saw that had been sheltering under the boat, then began soundly kicking it, to ensure nothing was hidden in any cracks or crevasses, as Hange, Kearney, and O'Seanessey studied the metal cable that ran alongside the canal in fascination.

"So now that you've had a chance to study it, is there a way to reverse the direction of the cable, to pull us back in the other direction?" Erwin asked hopefully.

"Aye, there is, if it still works," Kearney said, flipping a switch Armin hadn't noticed before.

The chain screeched to a halt, and then, a moment later, began running in the opposite direction, and Kearney grinned. "What a beauty she is! Over a hundred years old, and still working. She's powered by the water, as is the Gate, I'm certain of it," he said excitedly. He, Liam and Hange began speaking animatedly about the engineering marvels their ancestors had made.

Erwin interrupted. "Will we be able to tether all three boats to the cable without overloading and breaking it?"

"Aye, Commander. She's still thick and strong, though not as pretty as she once was. It'll save us rowing, and we'll be able to sleep in shifts. From what we've been told, as we'll be going against the current, the two day trip to the end of the canal might take closer to three days, and then there will be the walk from there to Wall Maria, and the hidden egress, Nu Gate."

"Excellent," Erwin said in obvious satisfaction.

Armin knew it was imperative for Levi's sanity that they spend as little time in the dark, insect infested underground tunnel as possible.

"Levi, you, Yeager, Ackerman and Arlert take the lead boat with one of the lanterns. Hange, you, Kearney, O'Seanessey, Anders and Bauer take the middle boat. Kirstein, Blouse, Springer and I will take up the rear with the second lantern," Erwin ordered, echoing the strategy they'd previously discussed. Attack would either come from the front or the rear, so they'd be keeping their engineering geniuses as safe as possible in the middle, with guards, in case trouble broke through from either end.

Levi, who always took the lead in any scouting mission and would normally have stood in the bow instead sat on the seat in the middle of their boat, his eyes fixed on the bottom of the boat. Armin knew he was trying not to see the insects on the walls, ceiling, and floor that fled from their light, or those in the water. They couldn't risk sedating Levi for the journey, in case trouble came to call; he needed to be awake and functional. Besides, he'd never agree to it. Armin was sitting alone in the bow and Eren and Mikasa were next to one another in the stern, on the back seat.

Erwin was the one who had suggested Levi bring a book, and read it, while the rest of them kept watch, to try to make the time pass more quickly and keep his mind off of where he was, and Pixis had kindly provided the book without requiring an explanation, a tome on military strategy. Once they were underway, Levi dug it out of his pack and began to read.

Nearly a full twelve uneventful hours later, Armin envied him the distraction. Levi at least had his book to occupy him, and Eren and Mikasa could speak quietly to one another. Armin was losing his mind. The trip back down the canal was simultaneously tense and boring, at least for the four of them, since they'd traveled it before, though in reverse. Armin suspected the novelty had worn off for the others long ago. What was worse, this trip was going to be longer than the outbound journey, since they were traveling against the current. If it wasn't for the cable they were clipped to, it wouldn't even have been possible by water, at least not without exhausting themselves rowing in the wrong direction.

In between looking for trouble, Armin turned around in his seat and tried to read passages in the book, though it was hard to do upside down, and he kept missing paragraphs as he viewed his surroundings. Levi had kept his eyes fastened to his book for the most part, but Armin saw he couldn't help himself and would scan his surroundings periodically, flinching and shuddering as things scuttled away on the walls, floor and ceiling, at the fringes of the light from their lantern.

Curiously, to Armin it looked like the number of insects had actually multiplied since their previous visit. Maybe they just weren't as afraid of the light as before? That could definitely be problematic. Or had something happened to the fish and less were being eaten? Looking at the water it didn't seem as if there were fewer fish. But he was certain now that the insects were far thicker in this part of the passageway than he remembered them being.

Armin had just started to read a new paragraph when a three centimeter long winged insect unexpectedly landed on the middle of the page and then immediately scuttled over Levi's right hand.

Levi's reaction was explosive and catastrophic, as he leapt to his feet, flinging the book from him, brushing frantically at his hand and arm, causing the boat to rock wildly.

Armin dove for the book and barely caught it, keeping it from the water, but rocking the boat even further. To his shock and dismay, there was a loud splash as Levi pitched head first into the rushing waters of the canal.

"Levi!" Mikasa yelled, and dove in after him, to Armin's horror. _Mikasa doesn't know how to swim!_ None of them did, and the current of the churning water was deadly.

"Mikasa!" Eren yelled as he attempted to follow her.

Armin tossed the book into the bottom of the boat, no longer caring if it got wet, and dove onto Eren, knocking him back down into the boat and latching his arms around him, barely stopping him in time, before he followed Mikasa, as the boat, tethered to the cable, inexorably continued forwards, while the current carried Levi and Mikasa swiftly away.

"Let me go! I have to save her!" Eren demanded, kicking, punching and struggling, as other voices, unintelligible over his cry, screamed things as well.

"Eren, stop! You're going to break the cable!" Armin yelled in panic, just before a fist found his jaw, knocking him back, freeing Eren from his grasp.

Armin's eyes widened in shock and denial, as with a desperate, wild look in his eye, Eren leapt onto the stone walkway beside the boat, crouched down, and bit his hand.

An enormous cracking boom reverberated up and down the stone walls of the passage, echoing endlessly, as the once dark passageway was flooded with chartreuse light and the sharp smell of ozone, and a tremendous bolt of yellow and green lightning flooded the tunnel. Armin was terrified they were all going to be electrocuted by it, as it arced down to strike the water in a dozen places, but the plastic of the boat protected him. He only hoped the wood of the other two would do the same for the others, and that Levi and Mikasa were already far enough away not to have been affected.

He looked anxiously towards the other boats and saw to his horror that Connie, Sasha, Erwin and Anders were missing as well, while Jean, Bauer, Hange, O'Seanessey and Kearney looked frantically at the water and at Yeager Titan. They'd only been gone half a day, they were at least three or four more days from their goal, thanks to the current, but they'd already lost nearly half their forces.

_No. They can't be gone. They just can't!_

Armin scanned the water desperately for signs of the missing as Yeager Titan scrambled down the tunnel on his hands and knees, back the way they had come from.

There was no sign of anyone. They had already been swept far from the boats. Most likely drowned, unless some of them knew how to swim, and few people possessed that skill. Levi had spent his life in the Underground, before joining the Scouts. There was no way he'd know how, and Mikasa had lived in Shiganshina with them, and they'd never played in the river.

_Gone. Levi and Mikasa are gone. And Sasha, Connie, Erwin and Anders. Oh God._


	25. Chapter 25 - Rescues and Reminiscences

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

A/N:

Freetrader – what smugglers call themselves.

Chapter 25 – Rescues and Reminiscences

"Levi!" Mikasa cried in panic as she watched him sink into the canal. She dove over the side of the boat into the frigid, turbulent water, surfaced and then struck out with strong strokes, cutting through the churning water, looking desperately for any sign of Levi, but it was hopeless. The light from the lanterns was already rapidly vanishing behind her, plunging her into a pitch black abyss of churning water. This foaming, freezing hell was nothing like the warm and placid lake her father had taught her to swim in, on some of their many hunting and trapping trips together.

Any sound of splashing, of Levi trying to stay afloat, was muted by the rushing water all around her, and every second she spent searching brought her further and further from the boats. It was hopeless. She could pass by him only feet away, and she wouldn't even know it. She couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face now, and the frigid water was sapping her strength at an alarming rate.

Unexpectedly there was a terrifying boom, and the tunnel flooded with crackling lightning, bathing it in an eerie yellow-green glow. "Oh God, Eren, you didn't!" she whispered, horrified. _The ceiling isn't high enough! You can't have transformed!_ She turned and struggled to see him, even as the light faded, making the darkness seem even blacker than before.

Fighting unfamiliar tears of fear and frustration, she cut across the current to the right. She needed to reach the cable, the walkway. She wouldn't be able to cling to the cable without having her fingers crushed in the various pulleys and cleats it ran through, but she might be able to grab hold of it just long enough to swing her legs up and out, and scramble onto the raised walkway beside the canal. There was no chance she'd be able to find one of the many maintenance ladders set into the rock of the canal wall that they'd passed by, and even if she did, little chance the ancient metal would bear her weight, even if they appeared still intact.

By the time she reached the side, her hands were all but numb, as well as her feet, and her entire body ached from the cold. Her fumbling, deadened, seeking hand finally found the cable and she struggled to hold on, forcing her half frozen fingers to close around it through strength of will alone, then swinging up heavy waterlogged boot clad legs, until she finally rolled onto the walkway and lay there on her back, but then she leapt to her feet as something skittered across her face, brushing it off in revulsion with numbed hands, careful not to lose the direction of the boats, though she could always kneel and reach for the water or cable. The cable was heading towards the boat and the others, and the water away from them. But it would be hard to get back up again if she knelt back down. She was freezing and exhausted from the effort of fighting both the cold and the current.

She blinked at the double afterimage of the lightning, two circles of green burnt into her retinas, as she carefully felt with her right foot as she walked back towards the boats, to ensure she didn't accidentally step off the walkway, into the water. She blinked over and over, but the image didn't fade. Instead, the circles of green grew alarmingly larger until belatedly she realized what she was seeing, that she was staring up into Yeager Titan's distant but rapidly approaching, enormous, glowing green eyes, even as she shivered uncontrollably from the cold.

"Eren! Thank God! I'm here, I'm alright, but I can't find Levi! You can see in the dark, can't you? Help me find Levi, Eren, please!" she begged, even as she heard heavy slapping noises on stone, and realized from the odd sound and the position of Eren's head that he must be crawling along the passageway towards her. Maybe they still had a chance of saving Levi. At the very least, hot as Eren's body was, she would no longer be in danger of dying of hypothermia from the icy water.

0 0 0

Sasha had just surfaced when she heard Connie shout her name. She yelped and nearly breathed in a lungful of water, as something hard and warm slammed into her. She felt frantic, grasping hands, and her own seeking fingers registered a fuzzy head.

"Connie! Are you insane? You can't swim!" Sasha scolded, her heart pounding. _How am I supposed to save Levi, when I have to save Connie?_

"Who says I can't?"Connie protested.

She could tell he was scowling, even though she couldn't see him, now that she'd been swept too far from the lanterns. And the boats. Maybe this wasn't such a bright idea after all, but what else could she do? She had to save Levi.

Fortunately, she could tell from the way Connie was kicking instead of clinging to her that he could indeed swim. "But what about your leg, the brace? Isn't it dragging you down?" she asked, in renewed concern.

"No, it's not that heavy and it's actually helping. I wouldn't be able to kick without it. I'm fine," Connie assured her.

"Help me find Levi," she urged, relieved she didn't have to abandon her search.

"I can't see a damned thing. Don't let go of me or I'll never find you again," Connie ordered. "What the hell is wrong with him anyway? Why'd he jump up like that and how did he fall out of the boat? The way he moves through the trees, you'd think he'd have better balance than that."

"I don't know what happened, exactly, but I know he's been keeping something from m… me. I'm sure Eren, Armin and Mikasa know. Something m… must have happened down here the l… last time, and he must have g… gotten forcibly reminded of it or something. It d… doesn't matter. Just help me c… call him. Levi! Levi, c… can you hear m… me?" Sasha was shivering and her teeth were starting to chatter from the cold water, making it hard to talk.

She jumped and unintentionally crushed Connie to her as there was a tremendous explosion. For a horrifying moment she thought Hange's dynamite had ignited somehow, that maybe one of the lanterns had gotten knocked onto her pack, and the lit oil had spilled, until she saw the yellow-green flash and huge arcing bolts of lightning.

"Shit! We have to g… get out of the water, n… now!" she yelled in a panic, knowing how well water conducted lightning, praying it didn't reach them.

0 0 0

Levi fought his way to the surface, choking and sputtering, silently cursing himself for letting his fear overwhelm him. He thought he'd beaten back that damned phobia again. _Tch._ The second he'd entered the passageway, he had known it was going to be torture, and that he'd probably lose it at some point. He just hadn't realized how dangerous it would be.

Thankfully, the lightweight but sturdy brace aided him in kicking, instead of dragging him down, as he first feared, when he hit the water. He could do without his boots and pants, though, both of which made it hard to stay afloat. Fortunately they'd all taken off their scabbards, since it was too hard to sit in the confined space of the boats while wearing them. He'd have sunk straight to the bottom, had they still been strapped to his hips.

Calling on skills he hadn't used since he was seven, he headed for the cable side of the canal, attempting to swim at an angle, instead of directly across, so he wouldn't exhaust himself fighting the powerful current. But the damned water was barely above freezing, and he didn't exactly have a thick insulating layer of fat like the pampered nobles in the Capital. Hypothermia could well kill him, if he didn't get onto the walkway and out of his wet clothes soon.

His maneuver gear was going to be a mess, of course. Fortunately Kearney and Liam were with them, to take care of the mechanical portion, but the leather was soaked and would dry stiff and tight, though it hopefully wouldn't shrink enough to become unusable. His boots were ruined, too, but would have to serve for the rest of the mission.

He heard different voices calling his name, as well as Erwin's, Mikasa's, Eren's, Sasha's and even that little shit Connie's names. _Crap, did I capsize the boat when I fell in, maybe somehow fuck up the others? Did the boats all crash into one another?_ _Did the cable snap with the strain?_

As the lantern light became a distant, muted glow, Levi lost all worry about saving his strength to reach the other side and swam desperately towards the cable, even as something wet and slithery brushed against his hand. He thrashed and almost drowned himself, before he realized it had to be a fish. _Tch. I should be more worried about getting a mouthful of drowned insec… _He began vomiting up the water he'd swallowed, and ended up swallowing more, and breathing some.

Coughing and gagging, Levi fought to reach the side before he drowned. He refused to die in such a ridiculous fucking way, killed by a damned insect and his own weakness and stupidity.

At the huge cracking sound of an explosion he paddled frantically for the wall, certain the entire tunnel was caving in on his head, that he'd be buried alive again, alone, in the dark, only this time, underwater, but still with the damned insects and… He was hyperventilating, and half of what he was breathing was water, instead of air.

_I can't breathe! _He tried to choke out Erwin's name, Mikasa's, Armin's. _Don't let me die alone, in the dark!_

But then suddenly he realized it was no longer dark at all, as he was bathed in an eerie yellow-green light, and with the knowledge came clarity, as the panic for himself evaporated, replaced by terror for Eren. _You stupid fuck! You're too damned big!_

He vomited up the water he'd swallowed and coughed out what he'd inhaled. He had to save that stupid fucking kid before he brought the damned tunnel down on top of all of them. _Fuck, if you're not already dead I'm going to kill you myself, if you bit your damned hand to transform, just so I'd have light._

Except he could no longer feel his arms and legs, and scarcely move them. He was half drowned and freezing, barely keeping afloat. He was being swept further and further away from any possible help. He couldn't make any progress at all towards the cable. But just as he was beginning to acknowledge the hopelessness of his situation, a silhouette appeared in the water of a head and shoulders, too small to be Erwin and too big to be Springer, backlit by the fading green glow.

"Who the f… fuck are y… you?" Levi challenged, trying to sound as if he could cut his throat out if he gave the wrong answer, but his chattering teeth instead made him sound weak and terrified, thanks to the cold. _Shit. Is it Hoover or Braun?_ If so, he was completely fucked, and not in a good way.

"It's Anders. You looked like you needed a hand," the welcomingly familiar voice identified.

"Thank f… fuck. Help me g… get over to the d…damned walkway. I can't f… feel my f… fucking arms and l… legs," Levi admitted, pride taking a back seat to need.

"Are you injured, or just frozen?" Anders asked astutely.

Levi shuddered uncontrollably. "H… Hypothermic. You w… will be t… too, if w… we d… don't g… get out of h… here," he cautioned, as his entire body seized, but fortunately, just as a strong arm wrapped around him.

"Let me do the work, sir. I'll have you to the side in no time," Anders promised.

"I d… d… didn't kn… know you c…. could s… s… swim," Levi admitted, barely able to speak from the chattering of his teeth, forcing the words from his aching jaw. _Fuck it's cold. _It painfully reminded him of the worst day of his childhood, the night he and his mother had been thrown out of their warm, comfortable home and forced out into the freezing rain with what little they could carry. Hours later, she was dead, and he was trapped in hell with the devil himself, who thought himself God.

"Any Freetrader worth his salt can, sir. I should have realized you'd be able to as well, but it didn't look like you'd entered the water intentionally, and I wasn't sure whether you were conscious or not," Anders said in his ear. "Although it looks like it's a good thing I went in after you after all. Relax, Captain. I won't let you drown, but I need you to stop struggling," he urged.

Levi forced his body to relax against Anders' leanly muscled form as much as he could, though he could do nothing about the shaking, as the former smuggler began the laborious process of towing him to the edge of the canal.

0 0 0

Erwin hadn't expected this, when he dove in to save Levi. Every muscle in his body seized with the cold. This stone channel was nothing like the tiny, warm, sunlit pond near his great-grandfather's house, where he'd learned to swim, or the huge, placid lake on his father's estate. This was a nightmare of current and cold. And darkness, he belatedly realized, as the lanterns' warm glow rapidly faded behind him.

_I never should have brought Levi down here._ _At least not conscious, after what Arlert told me. I should have had Hange sedate him for the entire journey, especially when she warned me it would take longer this time, because we'd be going against the current, possibly even rowing or walking, if we hadn't been able to change the direction of the cable._ But the Gate had opened so damned quickly and easily, and he'd become overconfident, and now Levi might die, because of his hubris.

He heard Arlert calling frantically for Ackerman and Yeager. _Of course._ The two of them would have jumped in to save Levi too. At least Arlert appeared to have had more sense. _Damn it._ Apparently Blouse and Springer had followed suit, from Kirstein's anxious cries. Levi would have called this a clusterfuck. He'd hate that he was the cause of it. _I have to find him._

There was a tremendous explosion and an all too familiar accompanying flash of yellow-green light. _Shit!_ Had Yeager been injured and shifted accidentally? If so, the result could be catastrophic, here in the confines of this tunnel, if he panicked, assuming the shift itself in such an enclosed space hadn't killed him. Annie Leonhart had balked at going belowground, which was one of the main reasons they'd made sure her prison was tiny, windowless and underground.

"Do any of you see Levi? Or Ackerman, Blouse and Springer? Is Yeager still alive?" Erwin yelled, hoping that if the boats hadn't capsized or sunk from Yeager's shift, from their higher vantage point the additional light might have revealed Levi and the others, and that Yeager had somehow survived the shift.

His yell was followed by a defiant roar. _Yeager Titan. At least he was still alive. But was he on a rampage, calling out for Ackerman or Levi, or merely unintelligibly answering his question?_

"We can't see any of you!" Arlert called back, sounding completely panicked.

Two enormous glowing green eyes scanned back and forth, far closer to what must be the ground than Erwin would have expected, as if Yeager was either crouching or on his hands and knees. _Maybe the change was intentional, then. So the boats and packs might at least be intact, if he was already on the walkway when he shifted._

"Yeager! Find Levi, Mikasa, Sasha and Connie! Get them out of the water!" Erwin commanded. He wanted to give Yeager Titan a clear goal, in case the shift was accidental, and to ensure he aided the others as well, so he wouldn't just shift back after rescuing Levi or Ackerman. The current and cold could be deadly. Yeager was used to being called by his last name by him, but thought of his friends by their first names. The last thing he wanted to do was confuse Yeager right now, or give him a command too complex to follow.

"Anders too, sir!" a distant voice called, most likely Bauer.

He wouldn't tell Yeager. He'd have heard that and Erwin couldn't risk confusing or angering him. Erwin knew Ackerman and Levi were Yeager's top priorities. Yeager, Ackerman and Arlert had abandoned Blouse and Springer with the rest of the Corps when they'd set out on their unauthorized rescue of Levi last mission.

The glowing green eyes drew closer. From the way he was moving so purposefully, Yeager Titan could apparently see in the dark. Erwin wished he was as fortunate.

Yeager Titan rapidly drew even with his position, crawling on his hands and knees like an infant, the enormous rictus of his jaw revealed in the glow of his eyes making the analogy hideous.

Erwin almost yelled when a giant hand darted out and enveloped him, yanking him out of the water, a blast of steam enshrouding him, as Yeager's Titan's hot hand met the icy cold water. Erwin grabbed hold of the giant fingers encircling him, but he was tossed into Yeager Titan's left hand, onto a somewhat soft but muscled form. Then the Titan shifter hurtled forward, his huge head turned towards the water. Erwin grabbed hold of the smaller figure, definitely Ackerman by the feel of her.

"Who?" she began pulling back, obviously realizing he wasn't Eren or Levi.

"It's Erwin. Yeager Titan apparently interpreted my orders creatively and included me in the rescue," Erwin said ruefully, as they continued to plunge forward. "What the hell happened, Ackerman? You, Yeager and Arlert were supposed to keep Levi calm," Erwin accused.

"It's not our fault, sir. Something flew onto the book and ran onto him. He jumped up, the book went flying and Armin caught it, but Levi lost his footing. He was over the side before we could grab him. But I immediately jumped in after him," she reported defensively.

"I wasn't aware you could swim. Apparently, neither was Blouse or Springer, although Blouse was likely going after Levi, and Springer no doubt after her," Erwin said, as he tried in vain to see anything in the water from between Yeager Titan's fingers. He couldn't even see the water, though he could hear it.

"Can Levi swim, sir?" Ackerman asked.

Erwin fought down his growing panic as she voiced his fear aloud. "Not that I'm aware of, although it wouldn't be the first time he's surprised me. And frankly, I doubt he knew I could, although he might have suspected I might be able to, after our last conversation."

"Watch it, idiot!" an anxious, angry voice yelled from what sounded to be directly below them on the walkway, and Yeager Titan jerked to a halt again_. Springer._

"Connie, d… don't m… make him ang… g… gry," Blouse scolded and then she yelped and Springer cursed. A moment later the two of them were tossed into Yeager Titan's left hand with them, which Yeager Titan now cupped against his chest, to hold them all. Erwin felt the two of them struggle at their unfamiliar presence.

"Who the fuck?" Springer demanded.

"Calm down, Springer, Blouse. It's me, Erwin, and Ackerman," Erwin scolded.

"L… Levi isn't h… here?" Blouse asked in concern.

"Yeager Titan is still looking for him. Since Yeager Titan snatched me out of the water, I'm hoping he'll rescue Anders as well as Levi, if he sees him," Erwin explained. "Damn it. You're shaking. Ackerman, Springer, pull as tightly around Blouse as you can. It feels like she's hypothermic."

"A… and I th… thought C… Connie's like a f… furnace. Eren's even h… hotter," Blouse said, her teeth audibly chattering.

Erwin's dread grew. Levi was just as petite as Blouse, but skinnier. Even if he was conscious and able to swim at first, by now his limbs might have entirely seized up from the cold.

"Eren, you need to hurry. Find Levi and Anders," Mikasa yelled loudly, apparently thinking the same thing, her command voice as impressive as his own.

Yeager Titan jerked forward, his pace markedly increasing.

"A…b…bout t… time. D… down h… here…b…brat," a barely audible or understandable voice croaked a few moments later, followed by a fit of coughing.

Terrible as he sounded, Levi was still alive! Erwin was suddenly able to breathe again.

"Careful, picking us up, Yeager. The Captain's in a bad way," Anders' deep voice added with remarkable calm, as if he spoke to Titans every day.

Anders' words and Levi's cough made the relief short lived. _But at least_ e_veryone is still alive. Now I just have to keep them that way. _"Now that you have everyone, once you pick the two of them up, we need to go back to the boats, Yeager," Erwin ordered the Titan shifter, hoping he wouldn't just dissolve back to Yeager's human form.

"**GRAAAR!" **Yeager roared.

"Calm down, Eren. It's alright," Mikasa soothed.

"I think he's upset because he doesn't think he can carry us all in one hand, and he can't crawl without his hands. Everyone, shift towards his wrist, lie down flat against his hand, as close to one another as you can," Mikasa urged the rest of them.

"Eren, we're making room! You can fit Levi and Anders with us," Mikasa called out, as they all complied, trying to make themselves as small as possible and wedge into the space between Yeager Titan's hand and chest.

This time, Yeager Titan gently transferred the missing two men. Erwin reached out when he felt the familiar but freezing, shaking slender body pressed against him. "Anders, help me warm up Levi, the way the others are warming Blouse, as much full body contact as you can, but make sure as much of him is pressed against Yeager as possible," he ordered, hoping Levi wouldn't fight them.

"F… f… fucking b… b… bug w… w… water," Levi complained trembling wildly, and then coughing again.

"You'll have to deal with it, Levi. You can shower once we're safely back on base, but at least we can dry you off and get you into clean clothes, and you can wash your hands and face with water from one of our canteens," Erwin soothed, not caring who heard. It was going to be pretty apparent to everyone after this that something was seriously wrong with their Captain.

"S… s… sorry f… f… for th… the d… d… drama," Levi apologized uncharacteristically, followed by another wave of coughing.

"You're forgiven. I'm just glad you're alright. That everyone is. Thank you, for going in after him, everyone. I guess we know now which Scouts can swim," Erwin said ruefully.

Thankfully, Yeager Titan was moving again, hopefully back to the boats. It was hard to tell, whether or not he'd turned around, with the jumble of people pressed against him.

But a short while later, there was a warm glow of light and Erwin heard Hange call. "Eren! Did you find Levi and Mikasa? Other people are missing too. Who's in your hand?"

"We all are," Erwin called down. "Everyone's alive, but Blouse and Levi are hypothermic. The rest of us are fine, thanks to Yeager. We need dry clothes for the two of them and blankets, and some human bed warmers. We'll make camp here, on the walkway, until we're certain they're alright." He was especially concerned about Levi's cough. The last thing they needed was for him to get sick, particularly with something potentially lethal, like pneumonia, although a simple cold could prove deadly when fighting against the Titans.

"Eren, keep heading back to the boats. We'll follow you!" Hange called.

Erwin belatedly realized Hange and most likely the others as well had gone after them using the walkway, bringing their lanterns with them.

Yeager Titan continued onwards, and then after a while, without being urged, Yeager carefully lowered his hand to the ground. Erwin heard the sound of rapidly approaching running feet, and saw bobbing lanterns, the others trailing not too far behind, since Yeager Titan had been restricted to a one armed crawl. They caught up by the time everyone offloaded from Yeager Titan's hand.

"Ackerman, cut Yeager free. Hange, help me undress, dry and change Levi. Arlert, grab some blankets, and you and Hange lie with him and keep Levi as warm as you can once he's dressed. Springer, dry and change Blouse and then yourself. O'Seanessey, Kirstein, you lie with Blouse, while Springer dries himself off and changes. The rest of you who went swimming, strip, dry and change. Kearney, Bauer, you stand watch," Erwin ordered. He knew he should have paired Arlert with Kirstein to aid Blouse, that she'd be more comfortable with someone she knew, but there was no way in hell he was going to tempt Levi with O'Seanessey, hypothermic or not, not when there was a better option. Thankfully they'd each at least all brought a spare uniform and would have dry clothes to change into.

"As soon as the rest of you are warm and dry, relieve Kearney and O'Seanessey, and I'll relieve Hange, so they can begin disassembling, drying and oiling our waterlogged maneuver gear." Thankfully they hadn't been wearing their scabbards in the boats, due to the awkwardness of sitting with them. Otherwise, they would all likely have drowned, dragged down by the weight of too much metal. "The boats!" Erwin voiced in belated concern. "We can't let them draw too far ahead."

"Don't worry, sair. I tethered them to one of the stanchions, so they'd not get ahead of us," Kearney assured him.

"Excellent. Good thinking," Erwin praised in relief. It was a damned shame they hadn't ever wanted to risk Kearney in the field. He thought quickly on his feet.

Fortunately Yeager was easily removed from his Titan body, and again seemed alert and aware, as he had the other recent times he'd shifted. The rest of them undressed, dried off and changed, while the ones ordered to do so quickly and efficiently took care of Levi and Blouse.

"Here. Drink these," Hange ordered Levi, passing a pair of small bottles to him.

"Wh… what a… are th… they?" he asked suspiciously, visibly shivering even worse than before.

"A cough suppressant and an antibiotic, to sooth your lungs and keep you from getting pneumonia," she replied.

"I d… don't t… trust y… you," Levi accused, pushing them back.

Hange sighed. "I know," she said, and to Erwin's shock, O'Seanessey and Kearney both attacked Levi, pinning him, immobilizing his left arm under O'Seanessey's prosthetic leg, and Hange quickly jabbed Levi with a needle she'd been concealing. As soon as the plunger was depressed and the needle was yanked back out, the three of them drew back. "That's why I asked Liam and Connell to help me. You need to sleep, Levi, or you're going to be no good to anyone by the time we reach Shiganshina. Now drink the cough suppressant and antibiotic before you pass out from the injection."

"B… bitch," Levi accused bitterly.

"I'm sorry, but it's for your own good. I swear we won't let anything on you while you're unconscious. Please drink them, Levi," she urged.

With a glare Levi relented. "R…rinse m… my m…mouth f… first," he insisted, gesturing to her canteen. Liam passed him his own instead, and he gratefully took a mouthful of water, sloshed and spit, and then held his hand out for the medicine. He drank both bottles without further complaint, making a face at either the taste of the thought of them, and then washed them down with more water.

"M… make s… sure S… Sasha d… doesn't g… get s… sick," he ordered.

"I'll keep a close eye on her, but she's not the one who got water in her lungs. Now lie back down. Once you and she are both warm enough, we'll load you back into the boat, cover you up and keep you safe, I promise. And Erwin didn't know what I was planning, so don't blame him, OK?" she added.

Levi nodded, and lay back down.

"Arlert and I will take it from here, Hange. Get to work on the gear with the Kearney and O'Seanessey. Springer will keep an eye on Blouse and the others," Erwin ordered.

Erwin enveloped Levi in a hug, and Arlert awkwardly latched onto Levi's back. "We'll make sure you're safe, Levi," Armin promised softly in his right ear.

"We'll protect you," Erwin echoed in his left.

Levi nodded, as his eyes drifted shut, the cold, exhaustion and shot taking their toll.

"Kearney, service Springer's and Levi's leg braces once you're done with the maneuver gear," Erwin ordered.

"Yes, sair!" he readily agreed. "I'll fetch the Captain's brace now," he added, as he approached. It was amazing how deftly he removed the brace, with his clawed hands. Then he headed back to the circle of lanterns he, O'Seanessey and Hange were working under.

Erwin was relieved when sometime later Levi finally stopped shivering and his cough quieted. "Arlert, check with Kearney and see how much more time he needs with everyone's gear."

"I just came to tell you we're finished, sair. We can get moving again as soon as you're ready," Kearney said softly from over his shoulder.

Erwin reluctantly let go of Levi, and tucked the blankets more tightly around him, then stood. "Excellent. Springer, how's Blouse?"

"I'm fine, sir," Blouse piped up, no longer shivering and stuttering.

He nodded, relieved. "Alright then. Hange, how long will Levi be out?"

"With that dose, about eight hours, so about seven or so now. But I can keep him safely under for the rest of the trip, or at least the canal portion. Armin told me the insects are only where the water is, that they didn't see any in the part they walked until they got near the canal, though he also said there seems to be more of them than before, so I'm not sure what's changed or why."

"I'd say keep Levi out the entire time, but we don't know what we might run into down here. The single dose should at least give him the rest he needs so he doesn't get sick," Erwin said.

"So what, all this was because the clean freak's creeped out by bugs?" Springer demanded insubordinately, intentionally or not, loud enough for Erwin to hear.

"I thought you, Eren, Mikasa and I could protect him, but we need to tell them, sir. Not all the details, but just enough so they'll understand," Arlert urged Erwin.

"Erwin, you can't. We swore we wouldn't betray him," Hange argued.

"We don't have a choice. Something worse could happen, depending upon what we find down here, if something's changed in the tunnel," Ackerman agreed. "If there's a cave-in, or a blocked passage, or the lanterns get smashed, they need to know Levi won't be himself."

Hange glared at Ackerman.

Yeager shrugged. "Mikasa's pretty much covered it." He turned to face everyone. "When Captain Levi lived in the Underground some really bad stuff happened to him. Because of it, he has serious issues with confined spaces, the dark, especially being alone in it, the water down here, bugs and rats. Especially bugs and rats. And now that I told you, if you tease him about any of it, or use it against him in any way, Connie, or any of the rest of you, especially to attack him, I swear the next time I'm a Titan, I'll eat you," Eren threatened, sounding as if he meant every word.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Springer asked incredulously.

Erwin was ready to reprimand Springer as the others, even Blouse, glared at him, but he wasn't done speaking.

"With all of that, Captain Levi came down here, knowing he'd be trapped underground in this tunnel in the dark with all these bugs for three or four days with only the lanterns keeping them away? Shit. No wonder everyone calls him Humanity's Strongest Soldier," Springer said surprisingly, sounding impressed. "Forget eating me, Eren. If I ever do or say anything to him, now that I know how to get at him, and you or the Captain want revenge, you just sic a pack of dogs on me."

"Connie!" Blouse said in shock, her eyes wide.

"What? Yeah, I told you not to tell anyone, but it's only fair, right?" He turned back to Yeager. "Remember those scars everyone asked me about, the first time you all saw me in the shower, how I told you I'd been attacked by a bear when I was a kid? It wasn't a bear. It was dogs, hunting dogs. I'm terrified of dogs, though nowadays I'm more likely to kick their asses than run from them.

"When I was a kid, I had this pet fox named Flame that I'd raised from a kit. I found her one day when we went to check our traps. She was a tiny little thing, barely bigger than my fist, huddled beside her mother, who was caught and killed in one of our traps. Her mother had the most amazing fur, the color of Sasha's hair. I could tell the kit's would be like that too, but for the first time, I realized how beautiful foxes were, not just their red and white and black fur, but their sharp ears, tiny little paws and bright black eyes.

"I knew she would die on her own, so I snuck her into my jacket and took her home and hid her in my room and hand fed her some milk using a cloth I wetted. Of course, my mom caught me before dinner, she knew I was hiding something, but she fell in love with her the second she saw her.

"We hid her from my father for weeks before he found out. I was so afraid he'd want to kill her, though mom had said he wouldn't, but when he caught me he just shook his head like I was hopeless, and didn't seem to care, so I raised her. She used to ride around on my shoulders, wrapped around my neck, or trot along next to me on the ground. She used to follow me everywhere. The whole village was used to seeing me with her." The sad, wistful look on his face turned to one of anger.

"But one day, a damned noble was passing through our village, with this new pack of hunting dogs he just purchased from Old Man Gregor. He'd seen them and wanted them and paid through the nose to get them. Even though Gregor is usually really careful who he sells his dogs to, they're like children to him, he learned no one can say no to Duke Reiss."

Erwin mentally recoiled, as if slapped, but kept his face impassive through years of careful practice as Springer continued.

"That arrogant bastard had no idea how to control those dogs. The second they caught Flame's scent, they yanked their leashes out of his hands and came after her. She was terrified, and ran up me, and wrapped herself around my neck and…" He swallowed hard and shuddered.

"It took six men to get those damned dogs off me, and they had to kill half of them to do it. When they saw what they'd done to me, they killed the rest. You can't let a dog live once he's tasted a person. There I was, lying there, blood everywhere, and that asshole's screaming about how we were all going to pay, for killing his dogs. He didn't give a shit about some peasant kid.

"Gregor's the one who paid my doctors' bills, with the money the Duke had given him and… yeah, so anyway, I'm not about to fuck with the Captain, after what you said. I'm not blind. I've seen his scars, all those bite marks on his hands and arms, when he rolled up his sleeves to clean. I thought they were maybe from squirrels or something, from all the trees he's been in, even though that didn't really make any sense. But now I know from what you said that they must have been from rats. I guess that's why he's so effective, killing Titans. Once something tries to eat you, you never let anything near enough to you to do that again. At least the dogs were quick. But rats…" Springer shuddered and Sasha hugged him.

"Thank you, Springer. For understanding and sharing your story with the rest of us," Erwin praised. "The more we know about one another's weaknesses, the better we can compensate for them. So, now you all know why Levi is currently sedated. I recommend you don't say anything to him about it, once he's awake," Erwin advised.

"We won't, sir," Blouse assured him, her eyes shining with love and pride for Springer.

Erwin was relieved. Until now, Springer had been the weak link in Levi's Squad, in terms of loyalty. He didn't think Springer would have any issues with Levi anymore, after this.

Everyone whose gear had been serviced had already put it back on, except for Levi, both so they'd be prepared for whatever might come at them in the tunnel, and so the leather straps wouldn't shrink and distort as they dried. Kearney had rigged a simple yet functional drying rack for Levi's, which hopefully would prove as effective as every other device he'd ever made.

Arlert, Ackerman and Yeager loaded Levi back into the lead boat and then carefully climbed in themselves, bringing the lit lanterns and supplies they'd offloaded with them, as well as the still wet clothes, which they bundled for now. It was too cool and damp here to attempt to dry them, and there weren't enough flat surfaces in the boat to lay a single set out on, let alone more than one.

Once everyone was ready, they reattached the boats to the cable and were once more on their way.


	26. Chapter 26 - We're Not Alone

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

**A/N:  
Due to my schedule tomorrow, I'm posting this one a few hours early, while it's still Wednesday. Enjoy!**

**Thanks to all my wonderful reviewers. I'd love to hear from more of you, if you have a few moments to write a review or send an IM. Thanks!**

Chapter 26 – We're Not Alone

Levi awoke groggily to odd sounds and sensations. His back ached, his neck was stiff, he was uncomfortably hot, and his lungs felt like they were on fire, but his head was on a soft pillow. He was wearing what felt like his uniform, complete with gear and boots, but was covered by the familiar weight of a Corps blanket.

_What the fuck? Am I in a wagon? Was I wounded on a mission? No. This doesn't feel like outside, but it sounds like we're on the bank of a river?_

He opened his eyes to the merest slits, to take in his surroundings before indicating he was awake and bolted upright when he realized he was in the damned boat, underground, in the dark, with the bugs.

"Levi, it's alright. Calm down. We've been on bug watch. Nothing's on you," Mikasa assured him, gently but firmly restraining him.

To his chagrin, he realized he'd been using Eren's lap as a pillow.

"Is everything alright?" Erwin asked anxiously from somewhere behind them.

"Levi's fine sir. He just woke up and was understandably a little disoriented at first, that's all," Armin called back reassuringly.

Levi was surprised Erwin wasn't in the boat with him, after the stupid stunt he'd pulled, but then he realized he probably hadn't been for his sake, knowing how humiliated he'd feel about first freaking out and then being tricked, pinned and drugged. _Shitty Glasses._ His eyes narrowed. "How many shots did she give me? How long have I been out?" he asked suspiciously.

"Only the one. There's no telling when things will get dangerous. We just wanted to make certain you got some rest. You stopped coughing while you were sleeping. How do your lungs feel?" Mikasa asked.

"Fine," he lied. His chest both hurt and felt heavy, but they'd worried enough about him. He'd quietly ask Hange for more of the antibiotics and cough suppressant. She owed him.

"Bullshit. How do you really feel?" Eren challenged, surprising him.

"I said I'm fine, brat," Levi insisted. Now that he was sitting up, it was getting difficult to breathe, and he felt a cough building in his chest, but fought to suppress it.

"Then why can I hear you breathe? I never hear you. That's how you're able to sneak up on me all the time," Eren challenged.

_Fuck._ Since when had Eren become so observant? Unable to stop himself, Levi doubled over as he began coughing again. It sounded horrible and felt like someone was raking hot knives through his chest.

Levi felt a cool hand on his forehead and would have flinched from the unexpected and intrusive touch, except it felt so damned good.

"Damn it, Eren! He's burning up! Why didn't you say something?" Mikasa accused.

Eren pressed his hand to Levi's forehead. Unlike Mikasa's, Eren's hand brought no relief. "He feels fine to me. Shit. Hange, that temperature thing you and I were discussing before the mission, it's still happening, even though it's been eight hours since I shifted," Eren called out. "Levi's got a fever in addition to the cough, he sounds like it's hard for him to breathe, and he's tensing up like he's in pain," Eren accurately assessed.

Finally able to stop coughing, Levi let out an exasperated sigh, which immediately morphed into another cough. _Damn it._ He'd coughed something nasty up into his hand, his lungs were burning, and someone, Eren or Armin, had a steadying arm around him, only it didn't feel like it was them…

"Hange, get over here now," Erwin commanded from right beside him.

_Shit. Erwin's the one who's holding me. I didn't even realize he left his boat. Or that ours had stopped. Fuck._

"I'm coming. Damn it, I was afraid this would happen," Hange said, sounding worried. "His immunity's still low because of his injury and the way he's been pushing himself ever since, from the travel and stress and lack of sleep, his earlier malnutrition and dehydration, all of it. How much pain are you in, Levi? And don't lie this time," Hange demanded, as he felt the boat shift with her weight.

"It hurts to breathe, and I coughed up something," Levi admitted hoarsely, showing her the green slimy wetness in his hand. Now that he was caught, it was no use trying to hide anything.

Hange studied his hand and thankfully wiped it clean, and doused it with something. Then she pulled out a stethoscope and listened as he breathed in response to her terse orders. She began asking him his symptoms, which he responded truthfully to.

"It's pneumonia. It's too early to tell whether it's viral or bacterial. I'm hoping the single dose of antibiotic just wasn't enough, and that more will work. It hit him really quickly," Hange reported.

"Dose him with everything you've got. Yeager, Ackerman, Arlert, you're in the rear boat for now," Erwin ordered, his voice thick with worry.

"I'd like to stay, sir. I told you I brought my mother's book, and a number of dried and powdered plants and herbs, and some other supplies, to supplement our other medical supplies. I can help," Mikasa insisted.

"Alright, Ackerman, you stay," Erwin agreed.

"Shit. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you had a fever," Eren apologized, staring down worriedly at him.

"It's not your fault, brat. I'm sorry for fucking up the mission," Levi apologized to all of them, filled with self loathing. They hadn't even reached Shiganshina, and he'd nearly drowned half the Squad, and now he was slowing them down. But worse, if Erwin thought he was too sick to go on, he'd send him back, and without him, they'd die, just like Furlan and Isabel, and Günther, Petra, Eld and Oluo. "Don't send me back. I'll get better. You still need me," Levi insisted to Erwin, hating the desperation in his voice.

"I can't afford to send you back. I couldn't send you alone, and I need every man, including you. We're going to keep going, and treat you in the boat as we travel. The sooner we're out of this cold, damp tunnel, the better it will be for you," Erwin assured him.

_Thank fuck._ "I'll take whatever you give me and sleep as much as you want me to," Levi offered biddably.

"I'm going to bring your fever down, dose you with antibiotics, and give you painkiller so you can sleep," Hange said. "You need to drink lots of water, but I promise you I'll only give you what we brought in our canteens, nothing from the canal. The rest of us can drink that. No more cough suppressant. You've got a productive cough, and you need to expel the fluid from your lungs. We'll keep you warm and dry and bug free, and let you sleep as much as possible."

"Fine," Levi agreed, willing to do anything if it meant he could stay. "How's Sasha? Is she sick too?"

"No, at least, not so far, and I don't think she will be. She didn't get any water in her lungs. Speaking of her, that reminds me: Springer wanted us to make sure you knew, as soon as you woke up, that he's terrified of dogs. A pack of hunting dogs attacked him when he was a kid, trying to eat his pet and not caring he was in the way. He wanted you to have equal leverage to use against him, if he was ever an ass, so you wouldn't worry about him knowing about your phobias and using them against you.

"Everyone basically knows everything now about yours, though not the specific details, and they're nothing but supportive about it. We've all agreed that part of our mission now is to help you live through the next few days, while we're underground. So don't worry about what anyone's thinking about you, OK?" Hange was staring at him with the owlish intensity she reserved for truly serious circumstances.

Levi wasn't thrilled that everyone knew, but in a way it was better that it was all out in the open, since they'd seen enough to begin making all kinds of wild suppositions. And it sounded like even that little shit Springer had his back, if what he'd said about the dogs was true. He felt some of the tension ease away.

"Here, drink these, and try and get some sleep, or at least, rest as well as you can, and do your best to relax," Hange advised.

"How about I read to you? The rest of the book you were reading?" Mikasa offered.

Levi bristled at the thought. His mother used to read to him, when he was sick. The thought of Mikasa doing so made him feel like a child and was bringing up memories he didn't have the strength to deal with right now.

"I'll read to him. You keep watch, Ackerman," Erwin ordered.

_That might actually work, hearing Erwin's sexy as fuck voice instead. _"Thanks," Levi said, both to Mikasa for the offer, and to Erwin, whether or not he realized how much he hadn't wanted to hear her read.

"Lie back, Levi, here, on the seat, where I laid out the blankets," Erwin ordered

Levi complied, forcing himself to relax, covering all but his face with one of the blankets. He would have covered that, too, but it would have made it too hard to breathe. But he trusted Erwin and Mikasa to do all they could to keep him bug free. And both Erwin and Mikasa knew enough to protect themselves from him, if he startled awake and tried to attack them. Not that he'd be much of a threat, in this state.

Erwin began to read, his deep voice remarkably soothing_. I might actually live through the next few days after all._

0 0 0

Armin frowned at the water and the walls. _Where are the bugs?_ For the past three days, the insects had been a constant presence, and when they'd been in the tunnel before, they'd started seeing large numbers of insects before they reached the canal. Other than the metallic shrieking of the cable, they'd been one of the first signs they were approaching the water. But he hadn't seen a single insect in what had to have been at least fifteen minutes, and they still hadn't even reached the immobile Xi Gate, and the end of the canal.

"What's wrong, Armin? You're getting as fidgety as the Captain," Eren observed.

Thankfully, Levi's case of pneumonia had been mild, likely because of his usual excellent health, Hange immediately giving him antibiotics and whatever it was that Mikasa had been treating him with, along with him resting the entire time. Levi was remaining horizontal now under protest, and only because Erwin was still reading to him. Everyone was relieved Levi was recovering so quickly, but knew that they'd likely be protecting him in Shiganshina, instead of the other way around. Fighting, running and flying would all strain his lungs, and his endurance would undoubtedly be low. And now there was the inexplicable lack of insects, to add to their worries.

Armin kept his voice soft, so he wouldn't alarm the others. "Something's wrong. Or at least different. You know how there were more bugs than there had been the last time we were down here? Well now there aren't any. We haven't even reached Xi Gate yet, but I haven't seen a single insect in a while now."

Biting his lip, he made a decision. He'd rather sound like an idiot than not say something and regret it. He probably already should have alerted the others. "Commander? We need to tether the boats for a minute."

Erwin stopped reading to Levi immediately and ordered everyone to secure their boats, and Armin could see him look around wary and alert, assessing their surroundings with a critical eye.

Armin hopped out of the boat onto the walkway, and Erwin did the same.

"What's wrong, Arlert?" Erwin asked.

"It's the insects, sir," Armin said firmly, not allowing any of his hesitation to show. He couldn't afford to be reticent now. "They're gone. They've been gone for a little while now, and they shouldn't be. There were a lot more of them than there should have been before, which might be why they were aggressive enough to fly and land even with the light, but now there aren't any. Something's changed since the last time we were down here, though I'm not sure what."

Erwin frowned and began scanning the walls and floor and water.

"The brat's right. Those fuckers should be everywhere, but they're not," Levi agreed, leaping gracefully from the boat to join them, yet another sign that he was healthy again, or at least nearly there, although Erwin scowled at him, his expression betraying his concern. But Levi hadn't coughed in almost half a day, and his fever had broken by the end of the first day.

"You're more familiar with the underground than I am, Levi. I assume this means either something scared them away, or something's been killing or eating them. Is there another possibility I'm overlooking?" Erwin asked, instead of chastising him to lie down, though he looked like he wanted to, another sign Levi was doing much better.

"No. Those are the only possibilities I know of. I need to scout…" Levi began, but he was cut off abruptly by Erwin.

"No. We'll have Blouse and Springer do it. Just because there aren't any insects here doesn't mean there won't be more up ahead, or something that might douse your light and leave you alone in the dark. I'm not putting you in that position," Erwin argued.

Armin winced as Levi bristled. The Commander wasn't pulling any punches. Although he hadn't said anything about Levi being too weak to fight, instead bringing up his phobias, so maybe he was trying to soften the blow? Even if it meant making Levi angry with him.

"Erwin, I'm fine. I'm not a fucking invalid anymore," Levi insisted.

"Levi, you could have _died_. If you strain yourself and relapse, you still could, or someone else might later, because we'll have burned through all our antibiotics saving you. Trust your Squad to do their job," Erwin insisted.

Armin could see the hesitation, and something more, in Levi's eyes: fear. Levi was afraid Sasha and Connie would run into more than they could handle, that they'd die. And maybe he was right.

"Sir, I think you should send Eren and Mikasa too," Armin risked suggesting. "That way, no matter what they run into, they'll be able to handle it." They'd seen Eren could safely transform down here. Battling other Titans crouched over would be tough, but he'd easily be able to squash animals or men, and Mikasa was worth a hundred soldiers, though not a hundred Scouts.

"Ackerman stays here. We need to keep our medics as safe as our mechanical geniuses. Kirstein, Springer, Blouse, Yeager, the four of you scout ahead and determine why the insects are gone. Kirstein, you're in charge," Erwin ordered. "Leave your packs here, so you're not encumbered, in case you need to fight. You're to determine the cause, but engage only if you are assured of victory. Otherwise, retreat and report back."

"Yes sir!" Jean responded, eagerness and pride in his voice at being given the lead in another scouting mission. Armin knew he wasn't the only one who'd been losing his mind with tension and boredom down in this endless tunnel.

Armin felt his heart beat faster, in a way it hadn't when he'd suggested Eren and Mikasa go. It wasn't that he didn't think Jean could fight, but he'd already been shot. Even after all that had happened, Eren and Mikasa still somehow seemed invulnerable and invincible to him, though he knew they weren't, especially not after that ambush in the woods.

"Be careful," Armin mouthed silently to Jean, as the four of them headed out, into the unknown.

_Marco, if you can hear me, please go with him. Please keep him safe. _

But there was no sign Marco or anyone else heard his silent prayer.

0 0 0

Jean unpacked and lit one of their spare lanterns and instructed Sasha and Connie to do the same. Eren was already carrying a lantern, but he didn't want to have only a single light, in case something happened to it. Their Corps lighters could only take them so far. "Eren, Sasha, Connie, stay silent and walk as quietly as you can," Jean instructed the scouting party, as he began leading them down the maintenance tunnel.

"We can't help that they'll see the light, we'd be walking blind without it, but sound carries like crazy down here, and while the canal might muffle what we're trying to hear, someone might be able to hear us coming from further away," Jean cautioned, immediately taking charge.

Although he and Eren weren't intentionally at odds anymore, sometimes they still just clashed from force of habit, and he didn't want anything to disrupt their mission of finding out what had happened to the insects that should have been swarming the seemingly endless stone corridor and canal. "Be ready to douse our lights if we need to. It'll be a straight, flat run back to the others, if it comes to that, and if you keep your hand on the outer wall, you won't be in danger of falling in the canal."

"I'll be quiet, as long as you don't send Sasha out alone again," Connie snarled.

_Terrific._ Apparently Eren wasn't going to be the problem. Connie still hadn't forgiven him for sending Sasha out ahead on their last scouting mission.

"This time we're sticking together. Now quiet, Connie. That's an order," Jean added, hoping the little hothead wouldn't balk at it.

Connie nodded wordlessly in confirmation. Fortunately, he seemed content, now that he knew Sasha wouldn't be facing an unknown danger alone.

They headed purposefully down the tunnel, carefully scanning their surroundings, including the water, for any signs of danger.

They must have been traveling for less than ten minutes when Eren unexpectedly slipped and fell on his ass. Had it been months ago, Jean would have laughed at him. Instead, he reached down to help him to his feet, but Eren didn't take his offered hand, not because he was the one offering it though.

"Yuck! What the hell is this slimy shit?" Eren growled in disgust, wiping his right hand against his thigh, cursing when it left a vivid smear on his white pants leg.

Jean lowered the lantern. The somewhat shiny grey substance was nearly the exact same shade as the stone beneath it, making it hard to detect, and that much more treacherous. He dipped his finger into it cautiously and raised it to his nose, crinkling it immediately at the awful smell.

"That's exactly what it is. Shit. Bird shit," Connie said, his nose wrinkling as well, as he smelled his own finger full of the stuff.

"How the fuck did a bird get down here?" Eren griped. Then his eyes widened. "Oh crap. Those Titans that were chasing us, when we came through Nu Gate. We were afraid they might bash the Gate in to get to us, after we closed it. What if they did? They could have caved a chunk of the wall in, big enough for a bird to get in, and if it got lost, it could have flown all the way down here, trying to find the hole again. We haven't seen or heard it yet, but the bugs probably ganged up on it and ate it. Wait! Unless that's what's been scaring the bugs deeper into the tunnel! A bird!"

"One or two birds wouldn't be able to do that," Connie argued.

"It's not one or two. It must be a whole flock. Look at the floor," Sasha argued, holding her lantern high, in doing so, illuminating a number of other shiny looking puddles and smears.

As if her words summoned them, the sound of dozens, if not hundreds, or maybe thousands of flapping approaching wings suddenly filled the air, accompanied by high pitched shrieking noises.

"What the hell… fuck!" Jean yelled, diving for the slimy floor, as an enormous black and gray mass of screeching creatures filled the air.

"What the fuck are those things? They look like flying mice!" Connie yelped, crouching down beside him, pulling Sasha down with him and wrapping around her protectively, but she tore free of his grasp and leapt back up to her feet.

"Eren, no! Calm down! It's just a colony of bats. They won't hurt you!" Sasha urged, lunging at Eren and hanging off his arm, to keep him from biting his hand, not seeming to care that the furry creatures filled the air all around her, although Jean belatedly realized they were somehow effectively flying past and over her, instead of into her.

"They're just upset because of the light, because we're in their home," Sasha soothed.

"Damn it! Now I kind of know how Levi felt when…" Eren visibly paled. "Shit! Fuck! Levi!" he yelled, running back down the corridor in the direction the bats were heading, apparently not caring he didn't have a lantern with him, desperate to warn the Captain, slipping and sliding in the dozens of new puddles of guano decorating the tunnel floor.

_Shit. Flying mice. Rats!_ _The Captain!_ Jean took off after Eren, lantern bobbing, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, knowing they wouldn't be able to reach them in time to warn them, that the bats would reach the others first, dreading what the Captain might do, when confronted with such a horrific nightmare, even as he futilely started to call out a warning.

Jean's fears were realized when an explosion rocked the tunnel ahead of them. This time it wasn't Eren. A second explosion followed, amidst shouting, and then almost simultaneously, an enormous third blast rocked the entire tunnel, accompanied by the terrifying thunder of falling rock. Suddenly the colony was overhead again, although this time heading in all different directions at all different levels, many flying close to the grounds, and all of them flying far more quickly and erratically. A number of the bats slammed into them as they fled from the terrifying sounds.

Thankfully, or maybe ominously, the explosions had stopped, as had the roaring tumble of rock, but now there was a different disturbing sound. The steady, calm flow of the canal had changed, replaced by a loud, thundering, churning sound.

Jean swallowed hard, slowing his mad dash and lifting his lantern higher, paling when he saw the centimeters deep flow of water lapping towards him on the walkway. He splashed onwards, heart hammering as the water level on the walkway continued to inexorably rise, and then he stopped again, stunned, shaking his head in denial.

The rest of the tunnel was gone. In its place was a jagged pile of rock stretching from floor to ceiling, completely blocking not only the walkway, but the canal, the water of which was hammering and buffeting futilely against the new obstruction, rising and surging backwards towards them, towards Xi Gate, at an alarming rate.

"Armin?" Jean screamed, or tried to, but he could barely breathe, choking on the pulverized stone that filled the air and on his terror, his heart thundering in horror, his voice scarcely a whisper, as completely obliterated by Eren's yell as Armin and the others had been by the mountain of rubble that now buried them. He fell to his knees in numb grief, the lantern falling from his hand, extinguishing in the freezing water swirling all around him.

"Mikasa! Armin! Levi!" Eren roared, pounding futilely on the wall, and then he began pulling frantically on one of the many hundreds or even thousands of rocks in the pile that towered above his head to the ceiling.

Armin and the others were gone, buried under tons of merciless rock.

_Dead. Everyone's dead._


	27. Chapter 27 - Another Fine Mess

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Thanks so much for all the wonderful reviews!  
**

Chapter 27 – Another Fine Mess

As reason returned, Levi fought to breathe, barely recovered lungs sucking in heaving, choking lungfuls of air mixed with finely powdered stone, his efforts further hampered by Erwin's , Liam's and Kearney's crushing weights pressing him into the rock floor of the tunnel. The three of them had tackled him, keeping the second stick of dynamite he'd flung at those furry, shrieking monsters, those flying rats, from the ceiling, but it had fallen onto Blouse's pack against the wall instead, and every stick of dynamite in it had ignited simultaneously. The roar of a massive explosion and accompanying thundering sound of falling rock had masked the hideous sound of screeching, but now it was ominously silent, save for his own breathing.

_Shit. Fuck._ He'd caved the God damned tunnel in on top of their heads!

The knowledge had him frantically fighting against the pile of bodies that lay on top of him, certain he'd killed them, that Erwin and Liam and Armin and Hange and the others were dead, because of him, that he was buried alive, again, alone, again, in the dark, again, with_ flying_ _rats_, everyone he cared about dead because of him, and…

"Damn it, Levi, calm the fuck down!" Erwin bellowed, from somewhere just above his head, the furious admonishment and uncharacteristically coarse curse more beautiful than any words of love ever uttered by the man. Levi instantly stilled, fighting to control his breathing, his heart rate, the adrenaline fueled terror still slamming through his veins.

"Hange, Kearney, O'Seanessey, Arlert, Ackerman, Anders, Bauer, who's alive and conscious, who can move?" Erwin demanded, his pain filled words causing a new river of fear to flood Levi.

"Shit, fuck, you're hurt, pinned, aren't you?" Levi demanded, fear for himself burnt to ash, replaced with fear for Erwin. Erwin would have gotten off him if he could. He was trapped and injured and it was all his fault!

"I can't move right now, but I'm fine. Just stay calm, Levi. I'm going to get you out of here, I promise," Erwin swore.

"Fuck getting me out! What's wrong, where are you hurt, how bad is it?" Levi demanded, squirming under his weight, until he heard Erwin hiss in pain, and he froze.

"Stay still, lad. We'll get you both out," Kearney's calm voice, muffled by Erwin's body, declared.

"Kearney, report," Erwin commanded.

"Everyone on this side of the cave-in is accounted for, sir, some injuries but no fatalities. From the look of it, you and the Captain are the only ones in dire straits," Kearney claimed. "The bats that were caught on this side of things have flown down the tunnel towards Sigma Gate, though they'll likely head back after they're done panicking, in spite of the feast waiting there for them. Bats eat insects, you know, sir."

"Commander, are you feeling lightheaded? Can you move your right arm or legs at all? Are you crushed or just pinned? I'm trying to determine whether you're losing too much blood, whether we need to amputate, or risk more dynamite, if we can't dig you out in time," Hange explained, her voice in that deadly serious tone she only used when things were at their worst.

_Amputate? Oh fuck. What the hell have I done?_ A wave of nausea left Levi far weaker than the pneumonia he'd only just overcome. He fought it back, refusing to drown in his own vomit until Erwin was free, until he knew the extent of the result of his actions. If Erwin died, he'd follow, but he would never leave Erwin to face a disability alone, though Erwin would undoubtedly hate him for destroying his life.

"Levi, it's not going to come to that," Erwin assured Levi, confusing him for a moment, until he realized Erwin was responding to Hange, not his thoughts, the hard, angry edge to his voice gone. "Hange, you certainly don't need to amputate and I wouldn't recommend the dynamite, except as a last resort. There's no telling how destabilized the remainder of the ceiling and back wall are now. The last thing we need is to trigger another rockfall. If you can use the picks and crowbars we brought with us to dig through the rubble around Eren's basement to remove this mess a stone at a time, that would be best. Right now, the way it's fallen, I'm trapped but not crushed. I'd like to keep it that way," Erwin said calmly, but Levi could hear the strain in his voice.

"But you're hurt. Tell me you're not bleeding!" Levi demanded.

"I honestly don't think I am. Not much, anyway. And the pain's bearable. Frankly, I prefer it, to feeling nothing," Erwin admitted.

"Ye heard the Commander. There now, Liam, lad, see if ye can wriggle free of him, when I give the word. Hange, be ready to help me brace it with this rock. Once Liam is free, we'll be able to get a better view of the Commander. We need to take this thing apart the right way on the first try. We won't get a second chance," Kearney claimed grimly.

Levi knew he should be going crazy, pinned as he was and unable to see anything from beneath Erwin, but his worry for Erwin, and maybe even Erwin's familiar, comforting weight and scent were thankfully keeping his head clear.

Levi listened as they freed Liam a few heart pounding moments later.

"Are ye alright, lad?" Kearney asked, his voice fatherly.

"I'm fine. Let me see what… We need to set braces here and here," Liam said confidently. "But the picks and crowbars are too narrow, and the rock not thin or long or stable enough. Ye can use my leg for one of the supports, and Arlert's arm brace for another," he suggested.

"That might just work," Kearney said approvingly. "Ye just sit tight, sairs. We'll take good care of ye," he assured.

"I'm sorry," Levi muttered to Erwin, the apology completely worthless. _People nearly died. If Erwin or any of the others end up permanently maimed because of me, if Erwin loses an arm, or his legs…_

Erwin sighed. "It's not your fault. I'm just glad you sound alright now. The look on your face, the way you were yelling and the dynamite… I thought you were going to blow yourself up or be driven completely insane," Erwin admitted.

"I should have let you send me back, or knock me out, but then… but now I'm the one who almost killed everyone. Twice," Levi said, the taste of guilt like bitter acid on his tongue, his stomach churning.

"Levi, don't. It's not your fault. I knew the risks, bringing you down here. So did Arlert and Ackerman. And the others knew days ago. You've saved every person here on at least one occasion, and most many times, even Kearney, or did you forget that bar fight he told me about?" Erwin justified.

Levi didn't argue, though he knew Erwin was wrong. He hated that he'd screwed up again, and that he heard Kenny's voice in his head belittling him for it.

He could hear the others planning their next moves, the familiar voices and the tiny bit of light leaking past Erwin now that Liam was off him reassuring. His earlier panic was gone, though once he saw the bats again, alive or dead... He shuddered.

"Levi? Answer me! Are you alright? Shit, are you hurt, can you still breathe?" Erwin demanded, panic flooding his voice as he shifted over him.

"Commander, stay still!" Kearney demanded at the sound of rock grinding against rock and cascading pebbles.

"Arlert, brace that! Ackerman there! The whole thing's… Bauer, Anders, grab the Commander's and Captain's hands and pull, now!" Liam yelled, his voice strained.

And suddenly there was the sound of maneuver gear gas and grapples, and Erwin was sliding over him. Levi saw everything in a quick flash of light and color: Armin and Mikasa, human support braces against a shifting mass of stone, the panic on Liam's face, and then an arm flew across his vision, latched onto his belt, there was a whir of grapples and gear, and he was yanked away only a second before there was a thundering crash, as the new void created by their absence was filled by unstable, shifting and settling rock.

"Armin, Mikasa, Liam, Kearney!" Levi yelled, as he struggled against the body he'd somehow landed on, elbowing ribs as he scrambled to his feet, certain the others were all dead, buried alive, even as he saw it was Bauer who'd saved him.

There was a wild whoop of manic glee from overhead, and Levi jerked his head up to see Liam dangling from the ceiling from a pair of grappling cables. "I may not be able to walk, but I can still fly, Captain!" he proclaimed proudly, in spite of his missing prosthetic leg.

"Armin, are you alright?" Mikasa asked anxiously from across the tunnel, and Levi's gaze snapped to her. Her arms were wrapped around the little blond, her grapples imbedded in the rock wall.

Armin was ghastly pale, but he nodded.

"And to think, after all this time, a lass would sweep me off my feet," Kearney said, the grin in his voice matching the one on his face, as Levi saw Hange set him down, an unfamiliar blush dusting her cheeks at his words. "I should have known it would be a Scout."

"And I thought O'Seanessey was the silver tongued one," Hange replied, but the blush darkened. Then she frowned and hurried away from the man she'd saved. "Commander! You shouldn't try to move."

Levi spun to face Erwin, expecting the worst, but he belatedly realized her tone was chiding.

"You shouldn't be standing. I haven't examined you yet," Hange chastised.

_He's standing. His legs are alright. Thank fuck._ But then he frowned as he saw Erwin's left arm dangling uselessly at his side. "Your arm." His right was the one that had been buried, but it seemed fine: his right hand was holding his left to his side.

"It's only dislocated. And worth the pain," Erwin assured him with a smile that was more a grimace.

"Sorry, sir. I didn't have the time to be gentle," Anders apologized with a concerned frown.

"You saved my life. A dislocated shoulder is a small price to pay. Thank you."

"Everyone's alright?" Levi asked, looking at all their faces, not willing to believe it, as he went to Erwin's side.

A chorus of voices assured him they were all fine, though from what had been said earlier, he knew there were at least minor injuries.

Hange began inspecting Erwin critically. "Yup, it's dislocated," Hange diagnosed almost gleefully, reaching for Erwin's arm, a manic grin on her face.

"Stand back, Shitty Glasses. I'll fix it," Levi insisted. He had to at least make up in some small way for Erwin being hurt because of his stupidity. "Hold still. This is going to hurt, but I know what I'm doing. Just ask Ackerman," Levi said self deprecatingly, as he gently took hold of Erwin's arm, ignoring the way his hands were shaking, the after affect of both the terror and adrenaline rush.

"Commander. We have a problem. Not only has the walkway been sealed off, but the canal as well. Which means we've disrupted the water supply of the cities and settlements that rely upon this canal, but also, we're sealed off from both the others and the way to Shiganshina. And even if we can restore the flow of water, the cable's snapped. It looks like we're on foot from here on out, as well as for the return journey," Anders reported grimly, as Levi felt Erwin's shoulder ease back into its socket.

"Remember, we still have dynamite," Hange argued. "It looks like we're just going to have to risk blasting our way clear. Hopefully the walls of the channel will contain the blast well enough that there won't be another massive cave-in. Kearney, O'Seanessey, I need you to help me determine…"

Hange's words were interrupted by an explosion of rock blasting clear of the canal, followed by an enormous cloud of steam and the screaming roar of an angry or triumphant or pained Yeager Titan, as he tore through the canal's blockage. They all dove for cover from the lethal shrapnel and scalding steam, as deadly missiles of rock all shapes and sizes scythed through the air. The roar was as terrifying as the flying rock as a flood of water filled the depleted channel.

"Armin! Thank God!" Jean yelled in relief, as he clambered over the jagged remains of the rockfall beside the canal, followed by Sasha and Springer.

"Levi! Are you alright? Is everyone?" Sasha asked, her eyes bright with tears of relief.

They'd barely stepped clear when Yeager Titan roared again, and then slammed his left hand into the rockfall blocking the walkway, clearing half the corridor, sending boulders flying in the direction of Xi Gate, triggering a new shower of rock to ominously cascade down from the ceiling.

"Eren, stop! You're going to bring the whole damned ceiling down!" Levi warned, leaping back from the falling rock.

Still furiously steaming, Yeager Titan turned on him and roared, a look of mindless rage on his face.

"Shit! Eren, stop! The Captain's right! Forget what I said! Don't move the rest of the rocks!" Jean echoed his order.

Levi cursed as Yeager Titan tired to swat him with his massive hand, manic fury in eyes.

Levi dove out of the way just in time, cursing his lack of maneuver gear, no matter how confining the straps would have been about his chest. He felt the wind of Yeager Titan's right hand as it slammed down onto the stone floor, brutally illustrating he had barely evaded the crushing blow in time.

"Yeager, stop!" Erwin roared, lunging towards him, his terror for Levi ringing in his voice.

"Eren, don't!" Armin yelled, his voice shaking.

"Eren, no!" Mikasa cried, sounding panicked, racing forward.

To Levi's horror Yeager Titan lashed out with his left hand to backhand swat Mikasa, Jean, Erwin and even Armin. _Shit!_ Yeager Titan had never attacked Armin before. The other two times he'd lost control, Armin had been the one to ground him. It was as if he didn't recognize any of them. Fortunately, thanks to their maneuver gear, all four of them evaded what would have been a killing blow.

Levi looked around desperately for a weapon, and spotted and snatched up his sword cane, cursing his lack of maneuver gear, hafts and scabbards. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, there was the sound of flapping and shrieking, coming from both ends of the tunnel as the separated bat colony converged. Levi dove for the base of the wall, desperate to curl into a ball and protect his face.

He barely saw the huge foot kicking out awkwardly sideways towards him in time to dodge away as Yeager Titan roared an enraged challenge and began attacking the bats, unleashing all the fury he'd been venting upon his comrades upon the flying rats instead, apparently blaming them, now, for his frustrations, for being kept from his mission of moving the rocks, and maybe for not being able to stand or for the cave-in. The furry little monsters fell by the dozens, but Yeager Titan was anything but appeased as his attacks became more and more wild and vicious, as oblivious to his fellow Scouts as to the rocks he sent flying. Unless he was stopped, someone was going to die, crushed either by him or by jagged boulders.

"Fuck the rodents," Levi snarled, his need to save everyone dousing his irrational fear, as he ran towards Yeager Titan, yanking off the protective wood sheath of the sword cane as he ran. No one else was dying because of his mistakes, not this time. He gritted his teeth as he ran over a carpet of furry bodies, crushing the dead and dying animals under the soles of his boots, as wings and claws buffeted him in a furry grey maelstrom of chaos.

"Eren, stop roaring! You're not just panicking them, you're messing up their echolocation! That's why they keep flying into us now!" Hange yelled, as if Eren would be able to comprehend her.

Levi was still meters away from Yeager Titan, his lungs straining, ridiculously winded by the short run, when Sasha and Springer, fully armed and wearing their gear, beat him to his goal. The two of them attacked the back of Yeager Titan's neck simultaneously, Springer going low from the left and Sasha high from the right, the way they always fought against Titans, in a choreographed attack.

Yeager Titan's roar of fury ended mid-cry as the hands that were flailing at his tormentors fell limp, and he slumped lifelessly to the floor.

"What the hell, Eren!" Springer yelled, but Levi reached them and saw that Eren wasn't conscious to hear. Strands of flesh clung everywhere, and his face bore scald marks.

"We're going to have to cut him out of there," Levi said grimly, as he panted for air, his abused lungs complaining. So now he hadn't only fucked up everyone on this side of the cave-in, but he'd made Eren completely lose it, too. Eren would be devastated and terrified once he heard he'd tried to kill them all again.

Levi joined them in the effort to cut Eren free, hating how he couldn't catch his breath, not oblivious to the swirling flurry of bats around his head, but not giving a damn, until he saw the claw marks on the back of his hand, the blood. The sword fell from his numbed hand as terror thundered over him like the roaring canal, drowning him in hideous, implacable memories, biting, clawing, _eating,_ screaming, dying, the sharp pain in his head barely even perceived as welcome oblivion claimed him.

0 0 0

Connie had been so focused on Levi that he went flying from Sasha's unexpected punch to his jaw.

"How could you hit him?" Sasha screeched as she knelt by the fallen Captain, shaking with rage, her words made ludicrous by her own attack.

"I had to," Connie insisted without apology or explanation as he gingerly probed his mouth with his tongue, tasting blood, hoping she'd only knocked some teeth loose, that he hadn't lost another one. He felt a brief surge of anger at the Captain as his tongue found the gaping hole from his missing tooth, but it quickly evaporated as he looked down at him: he looked so small, helpless and vulnerable.

The Captain had been fine, even surrounded by the bats, but then he'd suddenly gone white with terror, he'd been struggling to breathe, but it was his eyes, his face, the chilling, bloodcurdling, endless scream as he flailed against invisible, intangible demons that had made Connie act, that had made him hit him, in a desperate need to knock him out before he plummeted into the depths of madness; there wasn't time for Hange and a shot. It might already have been too late. They wouldn't know until he woke up.

Connie shuddered, as echoes of long dead screams rang in his ears, accompanied by the vague, shadowed memories of hands pinning him, then knotted cloth binding him, and finally leather straps restraining him, of unintelligible babbles of voices his only company, his only solace in the nightmare of his madness, until Sunny saved him: not his gentle and patient mother, or protective oldest brother Martin, or even his gruff father, but vicious, acerbic Sunny, the brother for whom until then he had only shared a mutual disdain. Their mother had always told them they hated one another so much because they were so alike, but neither of them had believed it, until then. Sunny was the one who had understood him, even in his madness, who'd known what to do to make him whole again.

"Connie? What's wrong? I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" Sasha asked, the anger gone, replaced by concern and guilt.

He prided himself on not flinching from her hand when she touched his shoulder right over one of the worst of his scars, basking in the knowledge that he'd understood her question. With a shaky, relieved sigh, he kicked the phantom dogs in the head, crushed their ribs under his feet, left them bloody and lifeless in his mind's eye, reveling that he still remembered how to hear and understand, how to speak, thankful that he wouldn't need to pull himself back over the precipice again. He didn't think he could, without Sunny, and his beloved older brother was hundreds of kilometers away, back in their village.

His eyes focused on Sasha's alarmed face, and he gave her a lopsided, reassuring grin, before looking down at the Captain again. He never would have thought anything but a snarling dog could bring him so close to the memories of madness again, but seeing Levi like that, plummeting over the brink, had been just as efficient a trigger. Likewise, he might be the only one who could bring him back, the way Sunny had rescued him. Levi might not even hear Sasha, or Armin, or even Erwin or O'Seanessey.

With a start he looked around for Armin and Mikasa and Erwin, wondering why he was still standing, after attacking Levi, since it was obvious Sasha had thought the single punch sufficient and wasn't going to beat him to death. _Ah._ Armin and Jean were clinging to one another, reassuring each other they were alright. Mikasa was busy cutting and pulling Eren the rest of the way free, and Kearney and Hange were physically restraining Erwin, though if his glare of fury could have killed, Connie would already have been dead. O'Seanessey was busy digging his artificial leg out from beneath the rubble.

The full weight of what he'd just done belatedly hit home hard, with the shock of a Titan's hand: striking a superior officer was a court martial offense, bringing with it the threat of either incarceration or execution, dependent upon the damage and the intent. Not to mention hitting Levi was tantamount to suicide.

His eyes flicked down the unobstructed side of the tunnel, back the way they had come, past the sea of dead bats and scattered rock littering the tunnel floor, the urge to run, to escape a powerful one. But Sasha would never go with him, and he wasn't about to leave her to get killed by Titans. Memory of Levi's boot in his face only strengthened his resolve. He wasn't about to run from the psychotic little bastard who'd saved his life. Even if Levi hadn't saved him, he'd saved Sasha, when she was poisoned. He couldn't run, not when he might be the only one who could help Levi recover his sanity. He'd stay and take whatever punishment they chose to dole out.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit you. Connie, you're scaring me. Say something," Sasha begged.

He blinked and looked at her guiltily. "Sorry. I'm fine. Just wondering if I'm going to jail or the gallows," he admitted bluntly, not mentioning the rest, wincing as she shook her head in denial and paled.

"Was it worth it? Attacking him when he was incapacitated, when he couldn't fight back? Were you that eager for revenge over a lousy tooth? He saved your _life. _He saved Sasha's life, too. You should be _grateful_ to him, you stupid ass," Jean snapped, looking furious and disappointed, but also afraid for him.

Connie rolled his eyes, rubbing his hand over the stubby fuzz of his hair in frustration, and then cursing, yanked it down. He wore the crew cut because of the damned dogs, as a constant reminder. Not because Flame had tried to burrow under his hair, and his parents had cut it off, to make it easier to clean quickly, those weeks he'd foamed and frothed at the mouth like a rabid dog, but because cut short like this, it felt almost like dog hair, and any time he was afraid of one, he'd brush his palm over the stubble, to ground him. Sunny had done that, given him that power, along with his other coping mechanisms to deal with his all too rational lingering fear, after his physical injuries had healed.

He sighed, exasperated. "I know that. You won't understand, none of you can. You've never been insane." It took a lot to say that in front of Jean, in front of Sasha, more courage than he thought he had, even after fighting his way back from madness.

O'Seanessey strode up, his gate limping and uneven, his reattached leg either bent or twisted, or the joint misaligned and protesting the abuse. Kearney joined him, and Connie braced himself for an attack, clenching his hands into fists at his sides, and then forced his hands open. He wasn't going to hit anyone else.

"Thank you, lad. I could na' ha' reached him in time," O'Seanessey said to Connie's shock, his voice rough with emotion. And miraculously, he was holding out his hand, as if he wanted to shake his.

Connie shook it warily, half expecting him to slap one of Hange's confiscated MP "happy fun time restraints" onto his wrist, but instead, the man pulled him in, enveloping him in a brief hug, before pulling away.

He frowned puzzled by the man. Had he actually understood?

"He wouldn't have been the first friend we lost, but he would have been one of the dearest, and each of them is priceless," Kearney confirmed.

"We'll help explain to the Commander, if he doesn't understand," Anders added, as he and Bauer approached. "The last thing the Commander would want is for the Captain to end up like poor Mitchell."

"Mitchell," Sasha whispered in horror, and Connie shuddered in memory of the mindless vegetable of a Scout who had returned with Anders and Bauer. He saw Sasha's belated comprehension, the knowledge that there were some things far worse than being physically maimed or even dead.

Connie's eyes tracked from one to the other of them, shocked and relieved by the unexpected support of the five people around him.

"Leave it to me. I'll explain it to him and protect you, since you hit like a little girl," Levi said, as he leapt to his feet in a smooth motion, making most of them start backwards.

"Levi! You're alright!" Sasha cried, hugging him in relief, for once the impulsive action not making Connie jealous. "Although one more 'little girl' crack, and you'll see just how hard a little girl can hit," she threatened with a frown as she pulled back, her bright eyes betraying her true feelings.

"I would have hit a lot harder if I'd wanted to keep you out," Connie snapped, glaring at him.

Levi met his eyes, and gave him a curt nod as a brief flicker of gratitude flared. "I know. Thanks, brat."

Connie was shocked. He hadn't expected Levi to admit it, or to thank him, even if he had remembered and understood why he'd attacked him. "You're welcome," he muttered, with a scowl.

"Hey, runt. Good to see you on your feet again, though it's kind of hard to tell with you," Hange taunted Levi, as she and Erwin approached, her left hand still conspicuously on Erwin's bicep, as if she wasn't sure whether or not Connie was safe from him yet.

"Don't you dare stick me with anything," Levi threatened, instead of retaliating for her height jabs, pulling out of needle range.

She held up her empty right hand, trying to convince him of her innocence. "I don't need to. Not unless you freak out again, at least," she amended, as a bat swooping by made Levi flinch, but he recovered quickly.

"Now that Yeager's not freaking the shit out of them, they're sticking close to the ceiling, for the most part, and they're mostly gone," Levi replied, eying his surroundings warily, instead of frantically. "How is the little shit, Mikasa?" he called out.

"Still unconscious, and his face is burned," Armin said in concern. Eren was free of the Titan's body, which was steaming away to nothing, and Mikasa smoothed some sort of salve onto his face, her open backpack beside her.

"He's really hot, Hange," Mikasa added.

Hange frowned and headed over to them, then knelt down and began checking him.

"So you're alright now?" Erwin asked Levi cautiously.

"Yeah. How's your arm?" Levi replied, sounding just as concerned.

Erwin fisted and then flexed his left hand and then fisted his hand again, his furious gaze on Connie instead of Levi and the fist a blatant threat as he replied, "Fine."

"Erwin, Connie did exactly what I needed him to. If I'd been in my right mind, I'd have ordered him to, but then I wouldn't have needed it. I'll explain it to you later, alright? Just don't hold it against him, and don't even think of bringing him up on charges or punishing him in any way," Levi urged.

"Alright. No punishment. But we need to talk," Erwin conceded.

"We can talk while Hange and Mikasa treat anyone who's wounded. Even minor injuries can get infected. Everyone else can gather up our packs, the ones we can find. Then we need to go. We can carry Eren if we need to. There's no telling how long he'll be out this time. If we're lucky, the cart we brought in last time should still be at the end of the canal, in front of Xi Gate and we can load him into it," Levi instructed, taking charge.

"O'Seanessey, you should have Kearney take a look at your leg," Hange suggested.

"I can repair it meself, lass. I'd rather he takes a look at the broken cable and sees if anything can be done for the return journey, though at least we'll be traveling with the current, even if it means rowing and steering instead of letting the cable carry us," O'Seanessey replied.

"Has anyone seen my pack?" Sasha asked.

"Sorry, brat. I blew yours up. You can have my food, but you'll have to forget about a change of clothes for a while," Levi apologized.

"We'll all share our food, Levi. You need to eat too," Mikasa scolded maternally.

"At least now we know why the insects are missing from this part of the tunnel. The bats will have been both eating them and scaring them back towards Sigma Gate," Hange reported clinically.

"But where did they come from? There weren't any in here when we were here before," Mikasa stated.

"When we found some guano and thought it was from birds, Eren said that he thought the Titans might have smashed in Nu Gate," Jean supplied. "We didn't have a chance to keep scouting, once we saw the bats, and realized they'd upset Levi. Although none of us expected him to try to use dynamite on them," he added ruefully.

Levi glared at him. "If they came from Nu Gate, there's no point continuing to scout. It's too far away, and I'm not about to just stand around down here waiting for you," Levi griped.

Connie approached O'Seanessey, who was studying his leg intently. "I don't really need the arm brace. If you want to disassemble it to use for parts to fix your leg, you're welcome to it."

O'Seanessey smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, lad. If what I have isn't sufficient to the task, I just might take you up on your offer, but I think I'll be fine."

Connie nodded and headed over to Mikasa and Armin. "Anything I can do to help?"

Mikasa shook her head wordlessly, and Armin said, "No, but thanks."

"Springer, come dig this pack out," Levi called and Connie headed for it eagerly, in spite of the terse order, relieved to finally have something useful to do, Erwin's eyes all but burning a hole in his back.

He blinked at the pack. Although only a single strap was visible, there couldn't be more than four rocks covering it. _Isn't Levi strong enough to free it himself?_

"Don't worry about Erwin," Levi said softly, to his surprise. "I'll make sure he understands. And thanks, Connie. Not just for hitting me, but for telling Hange to tell me about your own fear. I wasn't all that impressed by you, until the inn, when you protected Sasha. But I see now she made a really good choice. I'm sorry I had to knock out your tooth, to save you from the MPs. I'm glad you've gotten past it."

_Levi is actually apologizing? Holy shit. Maybe he's not such a dick after all. _

"Thanks for looking out for her," Connie replied.

Levi nodded, as Connie dug out the pack and handed it to him.

He rejoined Sasha, as they prepared to continue their journey.


	28. Chapter 28 - Until We Meet Again

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
If you like my Titans stories, you might also like **_**It's Not What You Think**_**, listed under D. Gray-Man. As indicated in the summary, it's a Karneval crossover story (but it isn't in the crossover section). I've also published an original four book high fantasy series featuring a number of gay and bisexual characters, Descent of Kings, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

****Chapter 28 – Until We Meet Again

"Fuck," Levi swore, as he stared at the shattered remains of Xi Gate, swords in hands. Everyone else was armed with their swords as well, except for Sasha, who'd strung her bow and had an arrow with dynamite lashed on it nocked and ready. Thankfully her destroyed backpack hadn't been the only one to carry dynamite, and the quivers hadn't been attached to it.

"Well, that explains how the bats got in," Hange commented.

"There aren't any footprints in the guano, but it's been disturbed in a number of places, like someone was trying to obliterate their prints," Sasha said critically, studying the droppings.

The cart they'd left was saturated in bat guano just like the floor, filthy and nasty smelling, but they had bigger problems. Quite probably Titan sized ones.

"So was it Titan shifters, or someone else with some kind of explosives?" Connie asked.

"There aren't any blast marks on the rock. No explosive residue," Hange stated critically, studying the shattered remnants of the Gate. "It looks like a Titan punched or kicked it in. And considering the thickness of the rock and the fact the Gate's hidden, likely someone like the Colossal or Armored. This reeks of intelligence."

"This was done days ago, from the guano evidence in the tunnel. The bats haven't been here too long, but they didn't just arrive today, either. Could the shifters have beaten us to this point by that much?" Sasha asked.

"If they were on horseback, sure, especially if they changed out their mounts. And didn't rest. We were going against the current, remember, at a steady pace, but a lot slower than a galloping horse, if they stuck to roads. If they went cross country instead of using roads, that would slow them down, but you know Reiner. Nothing stops that guy," Jean responded grimly.

"Any sign Eren's waking up?" Levi asked Mikasa hopefully, though it had only taken 20 minutes or so to reach Xi Gate.

"Not yet. He could be out for hours," Mikasa replied, her forehead creased with worry.

"So are they waiting up ahead to ambush us, or just trying to get to Shiganshina ahead of us?" Armin reasoned. "Do we risk leaving the tunnel and go the rest of the way on the outside, to avoid an ambush inside the tunnel, or as we're leaving Nu Gate, or is that what they're expecting, and they're waiting outside Xi Gate for us?" Armin asked astutely.

"It doesn't matter. We looked through the remnants of the Gate from here, as far as the lantern would reach, and only saw more tunnel. In a tunnel, at the most there will be the two of them, and whatever traps they've set. Outside, they could ambush us with an entire army of Titans, or the Titans could just attack on their own. We need to proceed to Nu Gate. We do have some advantages they're hopefully not aware of, most pointedly our new strategy for attacking Titans, them in particular," Erwin said cagily, not mentioning the dynamite in that connotation, obviously being wary in case the Titan shifters were up ahead and listening.

The thought had Levi, who was hovering behind the wall at the mouth of the Gate, clenching his sword hilts more tightly and straining to hear any sounds that didn't belong. "Ackerman, line the cart with blankets and we'll put Eren in it. Everyone who hasn't refilled their canteens yet, do it now. There's no telling when we'll see water again," Levi ordered. He swallowed down the wave of bile the thought brought, but at least there weren't insects in this part of the canal, where the water shot out from the huge hole bored in the rock, unlike when they were here before.

Levi reluctantly headed back towards the canal, his eyes carefully watching the shattered remnants of stone that had been Xi Gate, straining to see what lay beyond, in spite of the danger, the Sirens' call of the surface world beyond the Gate almost too much to bear. Now he knew how Odysseus had felt lashed to the mast and struggling to escape, knowing he would only drown in the Sirens' cold embrace. Even walking such a short distance from the Gate was nearly impossible: it was pulling at him like he was iron and it was a lodestone. He wanted nothing more than to break and run for the opening, dangers be damned, and leave this underground hell behind.

"Levi, eyes on me. Kearney's watching the Gate," Erwin ordered sharply, obviously seeing his need, his tension, and maybe fearing he'd succumb. Levi wouldn't blame him for thinking so. He hadn't exactly shown any backbone recently, he acknowledged in self disgust. His eyes found Erwin's and he gave a reassuring, curt nod. He wouldn't abandon Erwin and the others.

"From here on out, we're going to proceed in a seek and destroy formation," Erwin ordered. "Blouse, Springer, you two take point, bow and swords. Kearney, O'Seanessey, Ackerman, Hange, you're in the middle with Yeager. Anders, Arlert, you're our right flank. Anders, use your bow. Bauer, Kirstein, you're left flank, Bauer with your bow. Levi and I will take up the rear."

Erwin was protecting Yeager and their mechanics and medics, covering three sides with bows and the rear with the two of them. He likely would have paired Anders with Bauer and Arlert with Kirstein, otherwise, pairs and couples, like Pixis's Special Forces.

"We need to search past Xi Gate, to make sure they're not waiting just beyond our light. Not me, someone else," Levi qualified quickly, when he saw the objection in Erwin's eyes. Regardless, it would be a risk, and they could ill afford to lose anyone.

"Let me do it, sir!" Sasha immediately volunteered.

"Not without me you're not," Connie snapped.

Levi felt his heart start to race at the thought of Sasha being endangered like that, but if it wasn't her it would be Armin or Mikasa or Anders. Everyone here was important to him. He refused to lose anyone, but he knew his limitations. If he went out that Gate, he'd never be able to force himself to come back, not after the insects and bats and cave-in. It was all he could do to keep from running past the rubble of the Gate now.

"Alright. But have your bow ready, as well as swords. Kirstein, you go with them. You're in charge. I can't risk a second archer," Erwin ordered grimly.

As the three headed past him towards the Gate, Levi called out gruffly. "Don't die, brats. That's an order."

It was an indication of how tense they were that they all just nodded solemnly at the ridiculous command.

0 0 0

Sasha was relieved Levi hadn't insisted on scouting the Gate. After the way he'd been hovering by it and looking at it in so much longing it hurt to watch, she didn't think he'd be able to come back underground, once he was out of the tunnel, especially not after the cave-in. She was amazed and thankful he'd understood why Connie hit him; Levi seemed to understand better than she did. A look had passed between the two of them, as if they shared a secret none of the rest of them knew.

Well, they knew from what they'd heard. They just hadn't experienced it, thankfully. Being mad. Except maybe Jean, when he tried to kill himself. She shuddered at the grim memory of his tearful confession to her and swallowed hard. _If Connie died, would I want to kill myself?_

Angrily, she forced the thought down. Connie wasn't going to die. And she'd never give up, no matter what. She couldn't hurt Jean or the others.

_What if they're dead too?_

She shivered at the insidious question whispering in her mind. _Then I'll keep fighting until I kill every last Titan or one of them kills me, _she thought defiantly.

"I'm taking point this time," Jean stated, his strong, sure voice snapping her out of her grim thoughts, as they stood at the mouth of the Gate.

"I'll keep an eye out for footprints, but I don't expect to find any. Connie, you're behind me, and Sasha, you're in the rear. That will give you time to draw and aim, Sasha, and Connie, you light the fuse," Jean whispered, the lantern he was holding adjusted to emit the smallest possible amount of light.

They needed it to see what lay ahead, but they didn't want a glaring beacon announcing their presence to the Titan shifters. To Reiner and Bertolt. Were they really the Armored and Colossal? Sasha still couldn't believe they'd do something so horrible, that they were the Titans who destroyed the Walls, but the evidence certainly pointed to them.

"Got it," Connie agreed.

Jean and then Connie entered the gateway, and finally Sasha. She picked her way carefully through the rubble of the shattered Gate. It was impossible to see anything past Jean's broad back, but they'd already seen from holding up their lanterns and peeking inside from the tunnel that this Gate didn't immediately open onto a cavern or the outside, the way the Nu and Sigma Gates did. All they'd seen was unrelenting blackness, beyond shattered stone, indicative of another tunnel. Both her unlit lantern and Connie's bumped awkwardly on their hips as they walked. She jerked her attention away from Connie's butt. Now wasn't the time to stare.

Jean's lantern illuminated a narrow corridor, the walls and floor of chiseled rock, similar to the tunnel containing the canal. It was astonishing, what their ancestors had been able to engineer, tunnels and canals bored underground through solid rock. And all it took was a single Titan to destroy something that had stood for centuries: the ceiling, the cable, even the canal, before Eren had cleared it again.

Sasha hoped he'd be OK. She knew Eren would feel horrible for attacking them all, even Armin. No one had said anything about it, but she was pretty sure they were all thinking it: the other two times, Armin had been the one to calm Eren down. He'd listened to Armin. But this time… this time Eren had tried to kill him, too.

0 0 0

Jean eyed the dark void in front of him warily, expecting a Titan to lunge out at any moment and swallow him. They hadn't expected another tunnel, nearly as wide as the first one, to lie beyond the door before they'd seen the shattered Gate. But then, even the tunnel they'd been in hadn't been on the Aqueduct map Reiner and Bertolt had stolen. When they'd tortured Randall to death.

_Damn it. How could they fool us like that?_ _I still don't understand why they helped us so many times, if they just want to see us all dead. And why didn't they just kept attacking, and destroyed the other two Walls too? None of it makes any sense! What do they want?_

_Pay attention, dumbass,_ Jean scolded himself. Something was bothering him about the walls, the floor, but he'd been too distracted to realize it, other than a vague confusion.

"The carving's different. Not finely tooled, like the other tunnel. This one looks unfinished, or maybe just dug out by someone with lower quality tools," Sasha observed, voicing his nebulous thoughts.

That's what had caught his eye, without him realizing it!

"Like it was an afterthought, maybe? Not part of the canal system, but a way into it, maybe a safe way, to protect the workers from the Titans? Maybe the Gates were added later? Were there Titans contained by the Walls? I mean, when the Walls were being built, was the land overrun, and they built the Walls and then killed everything inside, the way we did when we retook Trost?" Connie asked.

Jean shivered as a sudden icy wind blew across the back of his neck at Connie's words. It was so damned chilly and dark. "I don't know," Jean admitted as he adjusted the brightness on the lantern, abruptly needing to assure himself it was safe, flooding the wide tunnel with light, anxious to prove there was nothing hiding in the shadows.

He yelped in shock and sudden fear as two hooded and cloaked figures lurking against the left wall 20 meters in front of them were caught in the sudden flare of light, his heart hammering when he saw the distinctive Wings of Freedom emblem flashing on the jacket over the heart of one of them, when they lifted their arm, shielding their face from the revealing light. A grapple shot out from the second, smaller figure, whose face was hidden within the depths of their hood before he could react, slamming into the lantern in his left hand, shattering it and bathing his hand and arm and the brace in hot oil, more splashing onto his chest his clothes. _The fire!_

Jean fought a scream from the shock and pain as an icy gust extinguished the hungry flame and the tunnel was plunged into pitch darkness. He cursed silently so he wouldn't betray his position as he dove and rolled, to evade future grapples, cradling his burnt left hand under his right arm. Reiner, Bertolt, it must be, although the sizes and shapes were wrong, so who…? But at least the sudden blaze of light had thwarted their ambush. How could they see down here without light?

"Come back here, you bitch!" Connie roared, the sound of whining maneuver gear filling the air as Connie gave chase, as the tunnel was once again flooded with light from in front of Sasha, a lantern with the glass chimney removed so the open flame was exposed.

"Oh my God, Jean!" Sasha cried, even as she dipped down and lit the dynamite on her arrow from the lantern, and nocked it. "Hold on Jean, hold on. Connie, pull back!" she yelled, terror and tears in her voice, even as Connie's harsh curse sounded from ahead, abruptly cut off as a grappling hook shot towards him from the end of the tunnel and Connie slammed into the wall and then fell limp, as the two figures fled in a dead run away from them, up the tunnel.

"No!" Sasha screamed, as she let lose her arrow. It rocketed towards the fleeing figures. Moments later there was the roar of an explosion, and a bright flash of light, followed immediately by the thunder of falling rock. Sasha nocked and lit the fuse of a second exploding arrow, sending it to follow, and the tunnel was rocked by a second explosion and more falling rock.

Sasha bent down and lifted her lantern high, her hand visibly shaking. Jean could see the entire opposite end of the corridor was completely blocked by fallen rock now. She lowered her lantern partway and ran to Jean, the flame almost extinguishing, without the glass chimney to protect it from the wind of her passing. "Don't die! Please don't die!" she sobbed.

"Sasha, I'm alright. It's just my hand, just a burn from the oil," he assured her. "Check on Connie," he ordered, cradling his arm as he stumbled to his feet, to prove to her he could stand, though his stomach rebelled as flaming agony burned all the way to his injured shoulder, making the gunshot wound flare in renewed pain as he fought to keep from hunching over.

Jean's breath caught in his chest as a familiar sensation of ice and reassuring warmth enveloped him. _Marco._ But this time, after embracing him, it centered on his hand, his forearm, soothing the worst of the pain from the burn.

Jean was more relieved to feel his presence again than to feel the lessening of his pain. _Marco's back. And he doesn't hate me. Thank you, God. _It was almost like having his own guardian angel to watch over him, like in those biblical stories his mother used to read to him. Although it seemed he got hurt anyway. But if anyone deserved a guardian angel, it sure wasn't him.

A ghostly chill finger pressed gently against his lips, as if he'd said the self deprecating words aloud.

_Sorry,_ he apologized. Then his eyes widened. That sudden chill, when he'd felt so uneasy he'd brightened the lamp, had that been Marco warning him of the ambush? And that gust of wind that blew out the flame, both protecting him from igniting his oil soaked clothes and from further attack, was that Marco? Had he saved him again?

"Connie!" Sasha screamed, as she ran to her boyfriend.

Jean belatedly trailed after her. _Guess I'm in shock or something,_ he excused himself, knowing it would only get worse once he looked, once he saw his dead friend.

He expected to hear Sasha scream, to see a grappling hook imbedded in Connie's chest, his back, to see lifeless eyes staring up at them. To his immense relief Jean realized Connie was alive, breathing, though unconscious. The only visible blood was a small spot on his head. The other grappling hook had merely tangled his own line, instead of punching through his body as Jean had feared, but the effect was devastating enough. Connie had hit the wall hard. There was no telling what kind of injuries he had, how many bones were broken, or…

Connie groaned and put his hand to his head, as he began cursing up a blue streak.

"Connie! Thank God! Don't move, don't try to talk, where does it hurt, lie back, stay still," Sasha demanded, contradicting herself as she babbled.

"I'm fine, Sash. You're the one always telling me what a thick skull I have, right?" Connie joked, as reached out and embraced her.

"Don't ever scare me like that again!" she yelled into his chest, clinging to him.

There was the sound of pounding feet, and Jean spun around, the move sending him in a stumble and a lurch as a renewed wave of pain seared his hand. He almost collapsed in relief as he realized the noise was coming from behind them, from the way they'd come, from their friends. _He stiffened. Unless it's a two pronged ambush? _He drew his right sword, ready for anything.

Then a grapple slammed into the ceiling down the tunnel from them, and there was a blur of motion, almost too fast for the human eye to follow, a lithe figure spinning and looping and diving through the air, followed only a few seconds later by a second blur of green, white, tan and black. Jean let out a shaky breath of relief. _Levi and Mikasa. Thank God._

"Sasha, Jean, Connie!" Levi called, even as his piercing gaze flew from them, to scan the corridor for their attackers, his eyes locking on the cave-in further up the tunnel. "You got them? Was it Hoover and Braun?" Levi snapped, landing a meter in front of them.

"Who's hurt the worst?" Mikasa demanded just as fiercely, raking a critical eye over all three of them.

"Connie hit the wall with his head, he was out for a minute or so, and might have some broken bones. My hand is just burned, and Sasha's fine," Jean reported, even as he braced himself against the wall of the tunnel.

"Sit down before you fall down, Jean," Levi ordered, as Erwin, Hange, Anders and Bauer arrived.

"Where's Armin?" Jean demanded, all thought of his injury vanished when he didn't see him.

"Guarding Eren with Kearney and O'Seanessey," Erwin replied. "What happened? Report."

"We were heading up the tunnel with the lantern low, we didn't see or hear anything, but I realized how wide the tunnel was and that someone could be hiding in the shadows and I adjusted the light suddenly, and caught two of them in the glare. Scouts, or at least, two people in Scout uniforms," he reported.

"Hoover and Braun?" Erwin demanded.

"No, I don't think so. They weren't the right heights," Jean admitted.

Connie snorted in disbelief. "Or the right sex. What, you didn't see who they were?" he asked incredulously, even as he hissed under Hange's probing fingers along a bloody splotch on his scalp.

"Oh my God? It wasn't them? Who was it? Who did I blow up?" Sasha asked, sounding horrified.

"Don't go crying over them, not after they attacked Jean and me. I saw her face, just before she covered it with her arm. It was that bitch Ymir. Which means the other one, the one who hurt Jean before you blasted her, must have been Krista," Connie said, his voice filled with cold satisfaction.


	29. Chapter 29 - Ghosts, Faeries, Monsters

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.  
**

**A/N:  
Oh my gosh! I have over 10,000 views, and I'm only a few reviews away from 200! Thank you so much!**

****Chapter 29 – Ghosts, Faeries, Monsters and Magic

Levi fought to calm his pounding heart, as his body shook with unspent adrenaline. When they'd heard those explosions, and then he'd heard Sasha scream for Connie, he was sure Connie was dead and Sasha was going to be next, he was terrified Jean was dead too, that he'd failed his new Squad as badly as he'd failed Isabel and Furlan and his first two Squads. But miraculously, all three were still alive, not even badly hurt, considering what could have happened, how deadly grapples could be when used as weapons and… "Fuck. Why aren't you dead? You should be dead," Levi accused, glaring at Jean.

"Gee, thanks. Sorry to disappoint you," Jean grumbled, hissing in pain as Mikasa cut the oil drenched sleeve away from his burned hand and forearm. The bottom edge of the bandage around his bullet wound was soaked in oil too.

"That's not what I meant, you ass," Levi snapped impatiently. "I mean, from what you three reported, after Connie dropped his little bomb about who it was, you should be dead. Ymir's almost as deadly as I am, she's probably equal to Mikasa and Krista made it into the top ten of your class, though I haven't been too impressed with her so far, other than when she brought the horses to you and Armin and Braun when the Female Titan attacked. But only your hand was burned, and Ymir tangled Connie's line. They didn't gut you both, like they could have. I think they were trying to stall you, so they could get away, not kill you. Because you're not dead."

Connie scowled as Sasha paled worse. "Oh God. You mean I killed them and they weren't even trying to hurt us?"

"Fuck. Stop it, Sasha. They attacked you, you defended yourself and your friends. Someone attacks you, you take them out. You stop and think maybe they're too young, or used to be a friend, or any other weak, useless bullshit like that and you'll end up a rotting corpse. They're soldiers. They attack, they know you'll defend. If they didn't want to die, they should have surrendered the second they were spotted," Levi said ruthlessly.

"Jean could have caught on fire, from the lantern smashing. He's lucky the flame went out and the oil only burnt his hand. The way his clothes are soaked in oil, he could have gone up like a torch. And Connie could have dashed his brains out on that wall, or broken his back. I don't care how skilled a soldier Ymir is: a grapple isn't a precision weapon. Even if they weren't trying to kill you, they took a risk, and you're the ones who could have ended up paying the price. Besides, they might not be dead. They might just be on the other side of the cave-in.

"And that too. Stop and think: outside Xi Gate is Titan land, ever since Wall Maria fell. That means they've been traveling through Titan land. And Xi Gate looks like it was smashed open by a Titan. So they're likely working with Hoover and Braun, unless Ymir or Lenz is a Titan shifter," Levi added. "Fuck. If one or both of them are, they could have survived that cave-in, even if they were buried by it. We need to set charges and cave the rest of this fucking tunnel in, so they can't dig their way back to us, at least, not easily."

"Hange, can you rig something to strategically cave in this tunnel, without using up too much dynamite?" Erwin asked. "We want to save enough for Yeager's basement, if we need to blast our way clear to the door, and for Hoover, Braun and any other Titans or Titan shifters we might meet, since we have it on questionable authority that there might indeed be a fifth Titan shifter whose identity we don't know yet."

Levi glared at him. _Like we can believe anything that lying bastard Kenny said. Except as he'd pointed out, Ymir and Lenz had somehow survived in no man's land to reach Xi Gate. Shit. What if it was true? If one or both of them was a Titan shifter. Fuck What if every cadet in the 104__th__ was a shifter?_ That was basically his entire Squad, except for Anders and Bauer. Wouldn't that be ironic? If his only friends were Titans? Well, except for Kearney and Liam and Anders and Bauer and Hange and Erwin, although Erwin was hardly merely a friend, and fuck, since when had he allowed himself to get that weak, to let so many people in who'd die and gut him by it?

Levi spun at the hand on his shoulder, sword arcing in tight and barely stopped himself from beheading Erwin. "God damn it! Don't fucking do that, you suicidal ass!" he roared in fury and terror, the thin cut on Erwin's throat beading five crimson drops of blood.

The entire tunnel froze, everyone's breaths held in stunned shock.

"Levi, put your sword down, now," Mikasa snapped, as if he were a recalcitrant two year old.

Levi grimaced. He felt like one. He carefully pulled the sword away, willing his hand not to shake as the deadly blade pulled safely back.

Erwin exhaled a shaky breath. "I was worried about you. You looked… off. Are you going to be able to make it to Nu Gate conscious?"

"I'm going to have to, aren't I? It's not like I can leave through here now. But fuck if I know how I'm going to get back, especially without the cable, though at least the current will be working in our favor. Unless some of those fuckers cave the whole damn tunnel in around our heads," he added bitterly. He'd sworn to himself he'd never go underground again, and he'd spent days down here, now and before. He sighed. "How are Jean's arm and Connie's head?"

"Springer's got a lump on his head and lost a little blood. Kirstein has first degree burns. Fortunately Ackerman had some ointment with her, because burns aren't something I was expecting to have to treat," Hange admitted.

"So can you take down the rest of the tunnel without using up our supplies?" Levi challenged.

She grinned. "Of course. Gather round, kiddies, and watch the artist at work," she said confidently.

"I'm not going to be anywhere near this tunnel when you rig it to explode." What, did she think he was suicidal?

"Are you sure we shouldn't try to dig through, to learn whether Ymir and Krista survived?" Mikasa asked.

"If they lived through it, they won't be there, or we'd just be opening ourselves up to attack, and if they didn't, they're dead, and no longer a threat. I don't want them or Hoover and Braun to have easy access to our backs," Levi replied.

"I agree. Hange, set the charges. The rest of us will stand guard until you're ready to light them. Just be sure to leave yourself enough time and a clear route to withdraw," Erwin cautioned.

Instead of grinning, Hange nodded solemnly, realizing now was not the time for joking around. "I will."

0 0 0

Armin watched the mouth of the tunnel the others had disappeared down anxiously, only seconds after the two explosions had roared, and Sasha had screamed Connie's name in that horrible, hopeless wail of devastated loss. _Oh God. Connie is dead. Is Jean still alive? Is Sasha dead too now?_

He wanted to be there, to save them, to help, to… he shivered, as an icy breeze travelled down his arms and then stiffened as a familiar warm embrace of his shoulder replaced it, and a ghostly hand patted his back, as if trying to assure him everything was alright, when it had so clearly gone horribly wrong._ Marco._

"Are you alright, lad?" Kearney's fatherly voice asked.

Armin shook his head, not trusting himself to speak, as he felt tears welling in his eyes. _Jean, please don't die. God, please, if you can hear me, please protect them._ He felt one of the tears fall. It was too late to ask for divine intervention. There was nothing even God could do now. If he was even real. It was almost funny, how it was easier to believe in Marco's ghost than the God his grandfather had believed in. Although God had never manifested before him and presented him with proof, no matter how incorporeal, as Marco had.

"Is he a friendly one, lad, or fearsome?" O'Seanessey asked unexpectedly.

Armin's brow scrunched in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"The spirit who haunts you," O'Seanessey clarified, as if he was speaking about a troublesome cat.

Armin's eyes widened. "You can see him?" he squeaked, then blushed as he realized Kearney was watching them both intently.

O'Seanessey smiled, a faint bittersweet twist of his lips. "Nae, though I wish I could. 'T'is more feeling them or hearing them. A gust of chill air or a gentle, familiar hand, or the sound of things that go bump in the night. And the day. O'course sometimes that's the Fae folk, playing their tricks upon us."

Armin blinked and stared. "You mean… you actually really believe in faeries? You weren't just saying that to flirt with Hypatia?"

"My people have believed in the Fae folk long before Titans walked this earth, when giants were scoffed at as drunken tales or merely stories to frighten the wee ones into behaving. So if something as incomprehensible as a Titan exists, why not a Faerie? I'd rather they were real: they're beautiful to behold, and more mischievous than malevolent, though their magic is no less deadly," O'Seanessey stated.

"Magic? You think the Titans use magic?" Armin asked incredulously.

"Nae. They di na' use magic. They **are **magic. You blow off their heads and arms and legs with cannon fire and they grow back. Only cold iron can slay them. They don't need to eat to live. And your friend here, he changes from man to monster, growing and shrinking at will, after offer of a blood sacrifice. What would you call all that, if not magic?" O'Seanessey asked, sounding completely serious.

"But…" Armin abruptly broke off his flabbergasted argument at the sound of numerous hurrying steps, tightening his grips on his swords and bracing himself for battle, Kearney and O'Seanessey doing the same.

He was relieved to see Levi, Anders and Bauer emerge, especially when he realized they'd sheathed their swords. Armin waited anxiously for the others to appear. Jean came out next and the flood of relief Armin felt at seeing him quickly doused when he saw the bandages swaddling his previously injured left arm now went from his shoulder to his fingertips. "Your arm, your hand! What happened!" he cried, running up to him.

"Krista and that bitch Ymir happened," Connie replied, appearing with Sasha, a bandage wrapped around his head.

"What? What do you mean? You saw them, they attacked you?" Armin questioned in surprise.

"Yeah. Although the jury's still out as to whether they were trying to hurt us or not," Jean admitted.

"Everyone get away from the entrance, against the other wall, but not opposite the mouth," Levi ordered. "Hange's going to blow the tunnel, and I don't want any more injuries."

Armin was relieved to see that Sasha looked unhurt and none of the others appeared injured. He accompanied Jean to the wall as Kearney and O'Seanessey wheeled Eren over. He almost panicked when he felt Jean's drenched, dangling sleeve, until he realized it was oil he was feeling, not blood. "What happened to your arm?"

"It got burnt with hot oil when Krista shattered my lantern with her grapple," Jean replied.

Armin's eyes widened in horror. "Oh God! Your sleeve is soaked. You could have…" He swallowed hard at the thought of Jean burning, screaming.

"Yeah, I know. Shit, Armin, she's the one who brought the horses, who saved you and me and Reiner," Jean said, sounding both betrayed and baffled. "Was that all part of an act? Or was she really just checking up on Reiner, helping him? Why didn't she or Reiner or both of them just kill us? No one would have known, right? They'd have assumed it was the Titans that got us. All they needed to do was cave our skulls in, or hell, even cut us up. It wouldn't be the first time an ally's blade hit a soldier during a battle."

"Are they dead?" Armin asked, not wanting to even think about two more of his friends dying. Not that Ymir had really been anyone's friend, except for Krista's but still… And Krista was so sweet, so gentle. _How could she have attacked Jean? Why would she side with the Titans against us? Is she a Titan too? Is Ymir?_

"We're not sure. Sasha tried to blow them up and bury them. There was a cave-in, sealing the end of the tunnel. That's why we're blowing the rest, to put as much solid rock between us as we can," Jean told him.

Everyone but Hange was braced against the wall opposite the Gate now, though far enough down that debris from the blast shouldn't strike them. They all waited anxiously for Hange to appear. _What if she doesn't? What if Ymir and Krista are lurking behind the cover of the fallen rock, and burst out and capture or kill Hange?_

Tension grew as everyone watched the yawning Gate. And then suddenly there was pounding feet, and bobbing light. "Fire in the hole!" Hange sang manically as she raced towards them. She was only halfway across the tunnel, but fortunately away from the entrance when a massive explosion resonated through the tunnel, and a maelstrom of powdered rock and shrapnel blasted out of the Gate. Armin half expected the ceiling above them to collapse too, but thankfully it held, as did the opposite wall.

Hange was laughing and whooping wildly, gleefully.

"You fucking maniac," Levi accused, but there was more affection and relief in his voice than censure.

"Alright everyone. Fill your canteens and then get back in formation. We still have a mission to complete. And Kirstein, wash that oil off your shirt and jacket, put them in the cart with Eren to dry and change into your spare.

"Do your laundry after we fill our canteens," Levi groused, muttering something about contaminating the City's water supply as he headed for the canal.

"You shouldn't get your bandages wet. I'll fill your canteens and wash your clothes," Armin volunteered solicitously.

"Thanks Armin," Jean said, wincing in pain as he began pulling at one of the buckles of his maneuver gear straps one handed.

"Let me do it," Armin said, batting away his hand gently, relieved to see he wasn't shaking. "You could have died," he whispered, fisting his shirt and pulling him close, burying his face in his chest. Jean smelled wrong, like oil and smoke, powdered rock and fear.

"Hey, Armin, it's OK. Remember, we were all under orders from the Captain not to die," Jean soothed.

Armin nodded at the nonsensical assurance. Levi might be Humanity's Strongest Soldier, but he wasn't magic. He couldn't keep them safe with the power of his words. _Magic…_

"O'Seanessey knows about Marco," Armin said spontaneously, as he began undoing the first of the buckles.

Jean stiffened. "You told him?" he accused, sounding hurt and betrayed, rather than angry.

"No! Well yes, but only after he told me… He asked if what was haunting me was benevolent or dangerous, as if he could actually see Marco and… I don't think Kearney believes in ghosts, from his expression, but O'Seanessey actually believes in Faeries and other things too," Armin admitted, as he moved to the next buckle.

"Marco was here, too? He was with me in the tunnel. He… I think he saved me again. I felt a shiver down my spine and turned the lantern up because of it. That's how we spotted Ymir and Krista, and then, when the lantern shattered, a cold gust of wind blew out the flame," Jean admitted, speaking softly so the others wouldn't hear.

"Thank God! I was thinking, before, he's sort of like a guardian angel. Except I didn't really think he could do anything, but… Do you think it's just all in our heads? That we want him to still be alive so… But I wasn't thinking about him or anything, and you hadn't told me, until I felt him… And it sounds like O'Seanessey's haunted too, or maybe wishes he was."

He continued to remove Jean's straps in silence, and then unbuttoned his shirt. He carefully pulled off his jacket and then shirt, mindful of his injured arm.

Once he was done, he knelt by the water's edge and filled Jean's canteens first, then his own. The others were already done filling theirs, so he washed the oil out of his shirt and jacket as best as he could, without soap. A tiny little bit of oil and sweat like this wouldn't pollute the water too badly. And half of them had already been swimming in the water anyway.

Once he was done, he laid the clothes in the cart with Eren to dry. The way he was still generating heat, it likely wouldn't take long. Eren would hate missing the battle, but he'd really be upset about Ymir and Krista. Mostly Krista. He'd hate knowing she'd hurt Jean, and was in turn blown up or buried. The thought had Armin swallowing convulsively and fighting tears. He brushed at them angrily. She attacked Jean. She could have killed him. She didn't deserve his tears.


	30. Chapter 30 - There's No Place Like Home

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 30 – There's No Place Like Home

"It's still intact," Levi said in surprise and relief, as they stood before Nu Gate. It was here that Armin had admitted to him that he and his parents were Freerangers and that Armin not only had read but owned a banned book. Only a dozen more steps and he'd finally be out of this underground hell.

"From what we can see, anyway. Let's hope they didn't damage the outside part," Mikasa said cynically. Her mood had been darkening by the hour, as Eren failed to wake, especially as his skin was still unnaturally hot to the touch.

"Maybe the sunlight really will help Eren," Armin said optimistically. They'd hoped that since the sun seemed to give Titans their energy, maybe it would help him recover, and Hange had enthusiastically agreed, but out of concern rather than scientific curiosity, this time. Eren had ceased being just another experiment to her long ago.

"As I've already outlined, return to formation immediately after we exit, only this time, Levi is leading and I'll be taking up the rear," Erwin ordered. "Give your eyes time to adjust to the sunlight if you can, but remember, there's no telling whether Titans will be right outside this Gate, or Titan shifters, or even Ymir and Lenz. Regardless, we'll definitely come across Titans as we head for Shiganshina's Inner Gate. Remember to try green flares first, in case they still work to drive them away. Archers, save your dynamite for emergencies. We'll need it for when we come across the Armored and Colossal. Our goal is to engage as few of the enemy as possible and the sound of explosions will bring every Titan for kilometers at a run.

"You all studied the maps and sketches and know the main roads to follow to reach Yeager's house, in case we get separated. You know where the Garrison Supply Depot is, in case you run out of gas or blades, or your maneuver gear becomes damaged beyond repair. Worst case scenario, if you're too injured or panicked to fight, try to make it to others who can, or get back here. We don't want to leave anyone behind," Erwin ordered coolly, eying each of them in turn, not lingering on anyone longer than anyone else, not even Kearney or Liam, for their lack of natural limbs, or him, out of love.

"Alright then. Prepare to move out. Levi, push the button," Erwin ordered.

Levi forced himself not to lunge for it eagerly. He pushed the rounded stone belly of the owl and heard a reassuring click as it depressed, and then the welcome sound of grinding stone. _Thank fuck._ He'd been afraid it might have been damaged where they couldn't see, that they'd have to blow their way out. He waited breathlessly for the first blinding flash of sunlight, though he half expected to see a Titan eye instead.

There it was: the sun! He crept forward along the corridor, gradually letting his eyes adjust to the brilliant shaft of sunlight that lit the gateway. He darted his head around the corner of the outer wall, ready to jet to safety. He saw a green field, blessedly clear of Titans, and the shattered and crushed remnants of two familiar carts, what remained of the contents scattered by scavengers.

"All clear! Move out!" Levi ordered, as he ran forward, clearing the way for the others, his eyes watering in the bright sunlight. The plan was to stick to the Wall as long as they could, but Titans tended to flock to the Wall, and cluster about the broken Gates, from what they'd seen at Trost. They would have waited for night to travel, since there were far fewer active Titans, but it would be too dangerous in the limited light of the moon and stars. Any Titans that were lurking would be that much more likely to catch them by surprise. They'd debated traveling in smaller groups, so their scent didn't carry as much, but determined it was too risky.

As soon as Erwin was clear of the gateway, Levi depressed the outside owl to seal it again. They'd debated leaving it open, but they didn't want to make it easy for Hoover, Braun, Ymir and Lenz, if they didn't know where this entrance was, or to risk having some inquisitive Titan stick his arm in and cave in the gateway.

They began moving across the field, the comforting solidity of the Wall at their side as they headed for Shiganshina's Inner Gate. Levi missed Achilles fiercely. He felt completely open, exposed and defenseless, in the Outside without his fierce horse.

"Any change in Eren?" Levi asked hopefully.

"Nothing yet," Mikasa replied tensely.

"We'll let you know right away, sair," Liam promised, his voice sounding taut and strained.

"Are you alright Liam?" Levi demanded.

"Aye, sair. Just a wee bit terrified, but nothing I can't handle," Liam admitted bravely.

At least he'd repaired his leg, so he wouldn't be at a disadvantage before the battle even began.

"15 meter Titan, ten o'clock," Armin shrilled, even as Levi heard the hiss of a gas grenade being launched. All eyes were on the Titan as Armin's grenade hit and exploded in a cloud of green smoke and astonished relief washed over Levi as the Titan abruptly turned and ran in the other direction.

"Faith and begorrah, it actually worked," Kearney said, stunned. Kearney and Liam had been as skeptical as Levi when they heard of the effect of green smoke on the Titans that Anders and Bauer had discovered, thanks to the disastrous ambush of their forces on their last mission. But that didn't mean others wouldn't be coming, who might not react so docilely.

They continued to run, Eren trundling along in the cart at their center. Levi hoped that, since there hadn't been any humans outside Shiganshina in years, save for the four of them a few weeks earlier, that there might not be a tremendous horde of Titans to deal with, although it was inevitable there would be at least a few ambling through the ruins of Shiganshina.

"There's the Inner Gate!" Levi cried in relief, not believing their luck.

"Two 7 meter Titans, eight o'clock!" Jean called.

"Aberrant, six o'clock," Erwin warned.

"15 meter, ten o'clock," Bauer cried.

There were the simultaneous hisses of three green gas canisters, but they didn't stick around to see their affect, if any.

"Inside, now!" Levi ordered, running inside the shattered gateway of the destroyed city. The devastation he saw almost froze him in his tracks. Not a building was left standing, at least, not here, near the entrance. Wandering, hunting Titans had continued to destroy homes and businesses during the years since Wall Maria fell, long after the last human fled or was eaten.

_Shit! Eren!_ There was no way the cart could make it through the rubble choked streets. They should have left him in the tunnel, except he never would have forgiven them if he missed this, but more importantly, he wouldn't have been safe in the tunnel from Reiner and Braun, and maybe even Ymir and Lenz, if they somehow escaped death. And if one or the other was a Titan, it was likely even burying them alive under tons of rock wouldn't kill them. They still didn't know what would kill a Titan shifter in human form, or Titan form, for that matter.

To his relief Levi saw Mikasa sling Eren over her shoulder and use her gear to duck into one of the few remaining doorways, across the street from him. He ran across to her, hating how heavily he was breathing from the short sprint. _Fucking pneumonia. I need to be able to run. I don't have time for this shit. _But at least his leg was alright, so far, thanks to the brace.

When he ducked into the building, Levi saw that Mikasa was trying to shake and urge Eren awake. Levi slapped him, hard, across the face. "Wake up, brat! We have Titans on our tail. We can't afford to babysit you." He slapped him a second time for emphasis, earning a glare from Mikasa that he hadn't seen in weeks, not since she hated him. He didn't care. He'd rather lose her affection and respect than her life, and Eren's. He slapped Eren again and tried to a fourth time, when to his shock and relief, Eren struck back, knocking him away.

"Thank fuck! I… shit!" Levi's relief was short-lived. Eren wasn't awake, at least not fully. He was groggy and only half aware at best, his left cheek stung red by the multiple blows.

"Mikasa, we have to…" Levi started to explain and was shocked when she slapped Eren across the right cheek with a slap so hard it almost sounded like a gunshot.

"Eren, Titans! Wake up so you can kill the Titans!" she demanded.

Whether it was the slap or the words, Eren's eyes snapped open, fully alert. "Titans!" he snarled, bolting upright. A second later he looked around in confusion. "Where are we? What… you're alive! And Levi and…"

He began looking around frantically. "Armin, where's Armin?" he demanded, his voice raising in panic.

"Quiet! He's fine. But we're in Shiganshina and Titans are converging on our position," Mikasa replied bluntly.

Eren's eyes widened in shock. "How the hell did I get here? The last thing I remember was biting my hand so we could dig you all out and look for survivors."

He stiffened, shaking his head in shock and denial at the gentle look of sympathy and compassion on Mikasa's face. "Oh fuck. Who died?" Eren whispered.

"No one. It's not that," Mikasa denied gently.

"Then what… oh shit. What did I do? Did… did something bad happen again? I didn't… is everyone alright? Did I hurt someone?" he demanded, grabbing her by the biceps, green eyes wide and frightened.

"Calm down, brat," Levi scolded. "Everyone's alive. You fucked up, but not even as bad as I did. At least you didn't hurt anyone, though you scared the shit out of us. We'll tell you about it later. Right now we need to… fuck!" Levi yelled, as a giant eye peered through the window at them.

The three of them barely dove out of the building in time before an enormous hand reaching through the wall knocked it down. A moment later Anders and Bauer took the Titan down, working in concert the same way Connie and Sasha had attacked Eren. But then, they'd had a lot of practice on their four day walk back to Karanese, after being abandoned and left for dead by the Corps.

Levi looked around for the other three Titans, but there was no sign of them, as their teammates started reappearing one after the other.

"Levi!" Erwin called in relief.

"Eren! You're awake!" Armin yelled, running up to them. "Are you all alright?"

Levi was relieved to see everyone else appear. They hadn't lost anyone, at least, not yet, and no one even looked injured. "Come on, Eren. We need to reach your house before we get swarmed. There's no telling how many Titans are already in the City, and more will come as soon as they scent us," Levi urged.

"Right," Eren said with a sharp nod, his eyes clear, his face determined, his earlier panic apparently gone now that he saw with his own eyes everyone was alright.

They began heading through the City on foot, sticking to the buildings and ruins of structures for cover, not wanting to risk being heard or seen using gear, but mostly needing to save their gas for fighting or fleeing later.

"If it gets too bad, Kirstein, if we're attracting too much attention, I want you to lead Blouse, Springer, and Bauer away from us, slowly enough to draw as many Titans as you can, so their focus is on you, the way our forces did in Trost," Erwin ordered. "You should concentrate on distracting them, not killing them, if there are enough to overwhelm you. You'll have two archers with you, Sasha and Bauer, but use your dynamite sparingly. We may yet come up against the Colossal and Armored. We'll keep Anders, so we have an archer as well. If something goes wrong, if you're about to be overrun and need to pull out, fire a black flare, so we'll know our protection has failed, and we'll expect imminent attack. If you see Hoover or Braun, fire a red flare, and if you see Ymir or Lenz, fire a blue.

"Black for mission failure, red for Reiner or Bertolt, and blue for Ymir or Krista. Got it," Jean confirmed with a nod.

"If any of you get separated from the others, if you're out of gas or blades, or your gear is damaged, go to the Garrison Supply Depot. You can restock there, and we'll look there for any stragglers, before heading back to the tunnel. But if we don't see you there, we can't stay and search. It is vital that we get the contents of Yeager's basement back to headquarters. If you're not at the Depot, you'll be on your own to get back to the tunnel," Erwin concluded.

_Like fuck I'll leave anyone behind, _Levi swore silently.

But they were less than halfway to Eren's house when Erwin's emergency plan had to be implemented.

0 0 0

Jean didn't wait for Erwin to yell out the order: with eight Titans converging on their position, and the sound of more coming they had yet to see, he knew it was time. "Connie, Sasha, Bauer, with me! Use your gear, stay low and go fast, but not so fast that you lose them. We're heading for those tall buildings near the east Wall!" Jean ordered, pointing with his sword, after a final look at Armin, a wordless plea not to die. They'd be able to reach the Wall from those buildings, and dangle themselves as tempting bait, without using up all their gas, and the Depot was nearby.

"After all this, and we're not even going to get to see what's in that damn basement?" Connie griped.

"Of course we will. They'll bring it with them," Sasha soothed.

Bauer didn't say a word, he just locked eyes with Anders, gave a brief nod, and joined them. Jean hadn't really known the man at all, until this mission, but the fact that he and Anders along with Rickard and Mitchell had survived a four day trek on foot back to Karanese after being left for dead spoke volumes. Especially since, from what he'd heard, Bauer had been the strategist of the group. Jean knew Bauer was a good Scout; after all, Levi had chosen him for his Squad before any of the rest of them. He only hoped he'd follow his orders. Jean was in charge, but it wasn't like he outranked the man. If anything, Bauer had been in the Corps longer, so he had seniority. But Erwin had put him in charge.

Playing bait to the Titans was both exhilarating and terrifying. Jean could feel adrenaline coursing through him. He knew later it would leave him weak and shaking, but right now, it filled him with strength and speed, that extra edge he needed to survive.

Jean landed on a rooftop and looked back and cursed. Only six of the Titans were following. Two had stayed behind, already blocks away. But then he saw a swirling flash of green and white, and one of them went down. _Levi. _His heart caught in his throat as Armin ran up a roof only seconds before a huge hand slammed down onto the shingles behind him. But then Mikasa was there, neatly slicing the monster's neck, and he belatedly realized it was a planned distraction, to position the Titan for her kill.

Something hard slammed into his side, knocking him from his perch, and he cursed himself for being distracted, realizing his inattention had likely just cost him his life, until he realized it thankfully wasn't a Titan who'd hit him, as he rolled along the roof in a tangle of limbs, even as the roof he'd been standing on was caved in by a massive hand.

Too big to be Sasha or Connie, so it must have been Bauer who saved him. He clambered to his feet and stood and then nearly fell, his blood turning to ice in his veins. _Shit. Fuck._ It was a Titan after all.

Reiner rose to his feet, his mouth open for a scathing comment, but then the usual big brother chastising look slid from his face. There was a flash of something too quick to analyze: loss, regret, or maybe just humanity, replaced in the next instant by a cold, assessing look that almost brought Jean to his knees. Reiner knew that Jean knew he was a Titan. Jean realized he'd given it away the second he looked at their former comrade, all the loss and hurt, the betrayal and anger and confusion he was feeling was on his face for the traitor to humanity to see.

Jean stood frozen, trapped like an insect in a spider's web, knowing it was about to be devoured, paralyzed by shock.

"Plan B!" Reiner yelled, loudly, cryptically.

_What? What the hell does…?_

"Sasha!" Connie yelled, fury, terror and loss in his voice.

Jean tore his gaze away from Reiner, belatedly realizing he'd just sacrificed any chance he might have had of surviving the encounter, his eyes widening in horror when he saw Sasha limp in Bertolt's arms, being rapidly carried away.

"Connie! Look out!" Jean yelled, seeing the Titan hand Connie was oblivious to in his fear for Sasha, but too far away to do anything other than watch in horror as it grabbed Connie's grapple line and yanked him towards the yawning chasm of its mouth.

But then Bauer was there, slicing the back of the monster's neck and the behemoth fell forwards, both Connie and Bauer falling with it.

Jean stiffened, expecting to feel the bite of a sword in his own neck, his back. He spun, knowing he was about to die. But Reiner was gone.


	31. Chapter 31 - Hostage

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:**

**Rav Seren = Chief Military Commander or Major (Israeli)**

Chapter 31 - Hostage

Consciousness came slowly and painfully as Sasha struggled towards wakefulness. Her head was pounding, and the rest of her felt stiff and bruised. She was never sick. What had…? Poisoned! She was poisoned, dying! She struggled to sit, to fight, her eyes snapping open, looking for Levi, for… She blinked in confusion.

"Reiner? Bertolt? But I thought neither of you were p…" she trailed off. They hadn't been poisoned. And this wasn't the Infirmary.

Sasha looked around, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Wood everywhere, walls, floor and ceiling, no windows, and gas canisters, large ones and small ones, beside a rack of rifles and dozens of wooden crates, and a thick layer of dust on everything. And she couldn't move, not even to sit, not because she was poisoned, but because her arms and legs were bound by thick rope. She was lying across a row of wooden crates.

The two men were standing around another crate, the contents of a pack spilled out onto the top. _Dynamite. My pack, Connie's, the one he gave to me, because Levi blew mine up, and some of Hange's dynamite ._ The mission came slamming back to her. _Shit. Oh God. Reiner and Bertolt: the Armored and Colossal Titans._

"Hey, Sasha," Reiner said casually. "I see you know, too. I'm curious how you all found out. I know you couldn't have gotten Annie to talk, not even with this," he said, gesturing to the pack contents. "We heard you were planning to blast her out of her crystal cocoon. But we had no idea you'd reinvented dynamite. That must have been Squad Leader Hange, right?" he probed.

"Why?" Sasha asked, the single word ripped from her throat without conscious thought.

"We need you to use as leverage, as a hostage. Captain Levi will do anything to ensure your safety," Reiner explained calmly.

"You're using us to…?" Her eyes widened in horror. "Connie, Jean, Bauer! They're not here! Where are they? What did you…? Oh God. You killed them, didn't you?" Sasha accused, her heart hammering in fear and anguish as she felt tears burn in her eyes.

Reiner's eyes narrowed and he glared at her, as if she'd insulted him. "I saved Jean from getting flattened. If he or that little idiot got killed after that, that's their own damned fault."

"You… you did. You saved him," she repeated, stunned by the memory. "He wasn't paying attention, and Connie and I were too far away to… Why? Why did you save him? Why did you capture me? Why did you destroy Wall Maria? **Why did you betray humanity?**" Sasha distantly realized she was screaming the last words, hysterically accusing someone who could easily kill her, while she was bound and helpless.

Reiner strode up to her and grabbed her shirt in his fist, lifting her by it one handed. "You betrayed us first! You broke the Pact! You ceased transmissions and when Marcel went to find out why, you killed him!" he roared, his face red with rage, eyes bulging, spittle flying from his mouth, shaking her like a rag doll.

Sasha was certain her neck was going to snap, when suddenly a soft, pleading voice was there, by her ear.

"Reiner, stop! Please stop! You won't be able to live with yourself. We're so close, now, to learning the truth. You promised we wouldn't kill anyone else, unless we had to, to protect ourselves. Don't become like the Major. Don't lose yourself," Bertolt begged, not trying to pull him off or restrain him, instead placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Reiner pushed Sasha away with a grunt of disgust, whether at her or himself, she wasn't sure.

Bertolt caught her and lowered her back down onto the crates she'd been lying on, thankfully in a seated position this time. "I'm sorry. He didn't mean to. Are you alright?"

Sasha nodded, wincing at the pain in her head, but unable to speak. She'd known Reiner could be scary, but she'd never been afraid of him, even knowing what he was, until this moment. She'd almost gotten herself killed. She had to be more careful, and not antagonize Reiner, now that she knew he was crazy. _No, not crazy. Grief stricken. Who was Marcel?_ She couldn't ask. Not that, not yet, but she needed to get them talking. And remind them she was a person, a comrade, a friend.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Could I have a drink of water please? And some painkiller, if you have any, for my head?" Sasha asked contritely.

"We have water, but nothing for a headache, sorry. We don't get headaches. We don't get sick. We feel pain when we're injured, but it doesn't last, because we heal so quickly," Bertolt said, holding an open canteen out to her. "Open your mouth and tilt your head back, so you can drink," he instructed softly, his opposite hand pressed gently to her back to balance her.

Her hands were tied behind her back; she couldn't hold the canteen herself. She hated being this helpless, this reliant, but she obeyed, and drank deeply. "Thank you," she said, after swallowing, when he pulled it away.

"I'm sorry for hurting you before, but I had to grab you quickly, or we would have had to hurt the others," Bertolt apologized. He looked like he felt really guilty about it.

She didn't understand. _If they didn't want to hurt anyone, how could they attack Shiganshina, and Trost? Why?_

"You mentioned transmissions. What did you mean by that?" Sasha asked carefully, hoping it wasn't too volatile a question.

"You wouldn't understand. It's part of the world before the Plague. Lost technology. Almost lost. We still have our short range transmitter and receiver, but there's been no signal for six years now. We waited months, hoping it was worn out parts, or a power problem, something technical, things like that had happened before, in the past century, but this time no message came explaining it. So we sent…" Bertolt swallowed hard and his eyes filled with tears. "We sent Marcel. He volunteered. Said he could blend in the best. Be… be the safest," he whispered.

He brushed his hand quickly over his eyes. "I volunteered to go. I'm the Communications Specialist. But Marcel is… was… is… a mechanical genius, but also our Infiltration Specialist. Reiner is our Armed Combat Specialist. And Y…"

"Bertolt!" Reiner snapped, his name like a gunshot.

Bertolt blushed darkly. "Sorry. I forgot she's the enemy," he apologized sheepishly.

"I'm not your enemy, Bertolt," Sasha argued softly.

Bertolt sighed, as if the weight of the world was on his narrow shoulders. "Yes, you are. You all are. Because you're only humans. And we're… something different. Something more. And less."

"Just because you're Titan shifters doesn't mean you're not human. Eren's a…" She inhaled sharply at the glare Reiner gave her, and Bertolt stepped protectively in front of her.

"Sasha has nothing to do with Eren being a shifter. Mikasa and Armin might, but Sasha hadn't met him before training. We know that for a fact," Bertolt said with surprising firmness in his voice.

"You shouldn't be talking to her. Telling her anything," Reiner snarled.

"I can't help it. I have to try. What has the past five-and-a-half years brought us? Hundreds of thousands of people are dead, and we're no closer to finding out what happened to the radio or Marcel than we were five-and-a-half years ago. The Major isn't here to order me to stop. Unless you're making it an order, Captain, please let me continue talking to her," Bertolt urged.

_Captain? Since when is Reiner a Captain? The same way Annie is a Major?_ "What's the United States Marine Corps?" Sasha asked impulsively, regretting it instantly, when Bertolt spun around and Reiner strode up, a look of shock and suspicion and pain in their faces.

"Where did you hear that?" Reiner demanded.

_Shit. Please don't kill me._ Sasha swallowed and then risked the truth. "Annie. She said she was a Major in the United States Marine Corps." She'd also said they were all dead, but she wasn't about to say that to them.

"Oh no. So you really did blast her free? Please tell me you didn't let her get away," Bertolt asked, sounding desperate.

_Shit. I shouldn't have said anything. But why don't they want her free? If she was their commanding officer, somehow, shouldn't they? Why aren't they there right now, freeing her? They let her languish for weeks without trying to rescue her._

She flinched back as Reiner reached for her neck. "She's partway free. Her hands and feet are still trapped and…" She'd almost said she wasn't healing.

Reiner's eyes narrowed. "Don't make me hurt you, Sasha. I'm an interrogation expert," he threatened.

Sasha felt nauseous. "Interrogation expert? Is that what you call someone who tortures someone to death, the way you killed Randall?"

Bertolt paled and looked sick, and Reiner clenched his jaw, a look of hate in his eyes. "Yes, little girl. That's exactly what the military calls it. Of course, there are things I can do to you that I'd never do to a man," he said threateningly, with a sick leer that made her stomach rebel and the blood drain from her face.

"Reiner, that's enough! Stop trying to scare her!" Bertolt yelled, his hands fisted at his sides, shaking. "Go outside. Check on Hans and Otto. Make sure the others aren't sneaking up on our position."

"I don't take orders from you, Lieutenant," Reiner snapped. "And I'm not about to leave you alone with her, either. She's a lot more dangerous than you realize. I promised Marcel I'd look after you while he was gone," he said more softly, a look passing between the two.

"OK. Just don't… don't say things like that," Bertolt pleaded.

"I'm not like you and Marcel, Bertie. I'm already damned a hundred times over, for the things I did in the War, long before the damned Project. I'm going to hell anyway," Reiner said. He sounded weary, rather than angry or condescending now.

"Sometimes I'm glad the world was destroyed. That they're all dead. After the things they made you do, they deserved to die," Bertolt said fervently.

Pain flashed across Reiner's face. "And that's why**I'm** glad they're dead. Because they made you and Marcel think like that. He never should have enlisted. Or you."

"But then I never would have met you. Or him," Bertolt said, with a sad smile.

Reiner nodded. Then he turned to her. "So Annie's hands and feet were still bound in crystal. What else were you trying to keep from saying? Because we need to know, Sasha. I'd rather not hurt you, or Bertolt by hurting you, but if you don't tell me everything, I'll have no choice."

Sasha swallowed hard. "If you kill me, I can't be a hostage for Levi," she said bravely.

Reiner shrugged. "I can fuck you up a lot without killing you. But there's always Armin or Mikasa or Erwin, if I get carried away. The Captain's got a whole host of people I can use against him."

Sasha shivered. The look in his eye, the tone of his voice… it wasn't an idle threat.

"She's not healing. And she didn't break free the rest of the way. We don't think she can, because she's underground. We think she needs the sun, to regain her strength, to heal," Sasha confessed. She wouldn't tell the rest, that Annie had stopped breathing, that they almost killed her when they blew her free, but she had to say enough to satisfy Reiner, to protect herself.

"You kept her out of the sun? And she's still partially trapped? Her hands and feet? Good," Reiner said, to her surprise.

She must have betrayed her reaction with her expression.

"If you hadn't noticed, the Major is batshit crazy, and one dangerous psychobitch. The last thing we want is for her to get free," Reiner said bluntly.

"You don't think the Rav Seren will try to free her, do you?" Bertolt asked, sounding anxious.

"No chance. She may owe the Major her life, and she loved Marcel like a kid brother, but she won't ever forgive any of us for Wall Maria. The only reason she entered the Academy and then became a Scout was to keep an eye on us," Reiner said confidently. "And the only reason she didn't rat us out after Trost was because she knew we'd retaliate, and she'd never risk her little friend," he added snidely.

"Or maybe because she knew we were only following orders," Bertolt argued.

"Tch! No Jew is ever going to swallow the 'only following orders' line, especially not that one. Most of her family got wiped out in the Holocaust, both in Finland and Germany, and the survivors never let her or any of their other descendants forget it. Her family was fighting to survive in the Camps my family was running. You think I'm scary? Surviving at any cost is in her blood. That bitch has done things that would make you pee yourself, with or without that beautiful voice of hers," Reiner said with a coarse smirk, more admiration in his voice than scorn.

_Rav Seren. I have no idea what that means. She, her. A woman. Joined up to keep an eye on them. Someone from the 104__th__? Little friend. Jew. Isn't that one of the old religions? Anders would know. What was the Holocaust? Finland and Germany sound like cities, but none I've ever heard of. What kind of camps do people die in? Military training camps? A woman, someone scarier than Reiner, other than Annie… Ymir! Annie had saved Ymir? Oh God. Is Ymir a Titan shifter too? And Krista? Then they might not be dead. All I did was drop a few tons of rock on them. They might not be dead. _

"Out with it, Sasha. What else do you know?" Reiner challenged, his eyes narrowing.

Sasha shook her head in denial. _They'll kill me. _"Ymir's a Titan shifter too, isn't she?" Sasha challenged. If it was true, then maybe she hadn't killed her. The thought both relieved and terrified her. Because Ymir was definitely scarier than Reiner, which was saying something, considering the way he'd threatened her a few moments ago.

"How could you possibly…? Shit. She attacked you, didn't she? And Krista must have been with her, because they left on leave together, and the two of them never go anywhere alone. Which means Krista could either be dead or your prisoner, but we didn't see her with you. Crap. You guys are completely fucked if you hurt Krista," Reiner said, his voice surprisingly sympathetic.

Sasha swallowed hard and risked the truth. "Krista attacked Jean and Ymir attacked Connie. They didn't give me any choice."

"Wait, **Krista **attacked Jean? What the hell did you do to Ymir? There's no way Krista would attack anyone, unless you hurt Ymir," Reiner denied.

"Nothing! We didn't do anything. They tried to ambush us, but we spotted them, they attacked, and we counterattacked," Sasha insisted.

"No way. Krista's like Bertie. There's no way she would try to kill you, unless you hurt someone she loved," Reiner argued.

Sasha bit her lip. "She… she might not have been trying to kill Jean. She attacked him with her grapple, she knocked a lamp from his hand, burning his hand and arm and covering him in oil. He could have burned to death, or the grapple could have hit him but… but she might have only been trying to distract us, so they could get away. Ymir attacked Connie with her grapple, but just tangled his line. But he still almost died," she justified.

"Sasha, what did you do? You said they didn't give you a choice. How did you retaliate?" Bertolt asked, his voice surprisingly gentle and understanding.

Without consciously wanting to, her eyes flicked to the dynamite on the crate.

Bertolt's eyes widened in shock. "You blew them up?" he asked, sounding horrified.

"No! I… I made a building fall on them," she improvised. She'd already mentioned the lantern, but she didn't want to tell them about the tunnel, when they might not know about them yet.

"That's it? Thank goodness. I'm sure Ymir protected Krista. They should both still be alive," Bertolt said in relief. "But why would they have…? Of course. For the same reason we grabbed you. To get to Captain Levi. Jean and Connie were just collateral damage. They were trying to capture you," Bertolt stated with assurance.

"They got hurt because of me?" Sasha asked, the thought making her sick.

Reiner shrugged. "Captain Levi doesn't have many weaknesses, but he's got enough. You, Commander Erwin, Armin, Mikasa and Eren are the best ways to hurt him, the best weapons to use against him."

"I'm not a weapon!" Sasha argued angrily.

"Tch. We're all weapons. That's all we ever were and all we'll ever be," Reiner said bitterly.

"You keep saying things like that. But we became Scouts to protect people, not hurt them. Although… Do you think of all the Titans as your people? Are you trying to protect them?" Sasha asked, both intrigued and repulsed by the thought.

"Are you fucking nuts? Those poor bastards are just soulless monsters, like zombies. They ceased being human a long time ago. They can't ever change back. There's not enough left of them. Killing them is a mercy. I wish I had a few hundred nukes so I could do the job right, but then, that didn't work too well the first time, did it?" Reiner said bitterly.

"I don't understand a lot of what you're saying. It doesn't make any sense. It almost sounds like… like you remember a world _before_ the Titans. But that's impossible. They've been around for at least a hundred years," Sasha argued.

"Yeah, I look pretty good for 134, don't I? Of course, I stopped aging at 28. Bertie and Marcel, they were just babies, only 22," Reiner claimed.

Sasha's eyes widened. "You can't…? Do you really mean that? Are you really… immortal?"

"Tch. Sure. Until we're killed. Of course, that's not easy to do. Hurts like a bitch when you try, though." Reiner commented calmly.

Sasha jumped as a furious cacophony of barking sounded from somewhere outside the room.

"Fuck. It sounds like Hans and Otto caught some rats," Reiner said with a dark scowl.

"Oh no. Connie! Run!" Sasha yelled, certain he'd come to rescue her, and hearing the dogs, knowing how disastrous that was going to be. She froze as she heard a terrified scream confirming her worst fears.


	32. Chapter 32 - Hellhounds

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
****Special thanks to ****YaraCupli4ever (a.k.a. Yara) ****for her advance corrections to my extremely rusty German!  
****  
German translation of commands:**

_**"Hans, Otto! Lasst das sein!"**_** =  
"Hans, Otto, don't do that!"**

_**"Lasst ihn! Er geh**__**ö**__**rt zu mir! Geht zur**__**ü**__**ck! Besch**__**ü**__**tzt Reiner und Bertolt."=  
**_** "Leave him! He is mine (part of my pack)! Go back! Guard (Protect) Reiner and Bertolt."**

_**"Was ist los? M**__**ö**__**chtet ihr nicht gehen?"**_** =  
"What's wrong? You don't want to leave?"**

_**"Aber ihr k**__**ö**__**nnt ihn nicht essen. Er ist ein Freund. Geht zur**__**ü**__**ck! Besch**__**ü**__**tzt Reiner und Bertolt." **_** =  
"But you can't eat him. He is a friend. Go back! Guard (Protect) Reiner and Bertolt."**

_**"Ihr seid gute H**__**ü**__**ndchen."**_** =  
"You're good little dogs."**_**  
**_

Chapter 32 – Hellhounds

_Screw the plan._ Connie cut his way through the last neck of the final Titan. They were dozens of blocks from the others now, the battle with the six Titans that had attacked and chased them bringing them further and further away. He popped a black flare in his pistol, indicative of mission failure, and fired. "You two do what you want. I'm going after Sasha," Connie announced.

"Connie, you'll die! We have to go back and warn the others that Reiner and Bertolt aren't only here, but they have Sasha as a hostage," Jean urged, even as he belatedly loaded his red flare to announce Reiner and Bertolt were in the city. They hadn't had a moment to spare before; they'd been too busy running and fighting for their lives. He raised his pistol and fired, and then cursed. It had jammed.

Bauer took out his own pistol and loaded a red charge and then fired. It streaked into the sky, crossing the path of the black smoke trail. "You'll need more than one archer with dynamite to take on those two, or I'd stay with Springer. I'll go back, and relay the message about Sasha. The two of you try to pick up their trail. I strongly recommend you don't try to attack them until back-up arrives. We don't need to be rescuing three of you, or worse, burying you two," Bauer said grimly.

"Can you make it back across town to the others alone?" Jean asked skeptically. They'd killed the six, thanks in part to Bauer's judicious use of dynamite, but more were sure to come at any moment, drawn by the sounds of battle and the smell of humans, and the two of them wouldn't be with Bauer to light the dynamite strapped to the arrows or distract the targets while he aimed at them.

"Tch. The dynamite isn't the only trick up my sleeve. I spent four days out here, and most of the first day alone, evading Titans, and that was mostly on open ground. I've gotten pretty good at staying alive," Bauer countered.

"Alright. Good luck. And be careful," Jean said.

"You too," Bauer replied, and then he was off, moving with the speed and skill of a seasoned Scout.

"OK, Connie. Let's go. But no heroics," Jean urged.

Connie took off without a word, feeling Jean's disapproving stare on his back.

At first the trail was easy to follow. They'd seen which way the two men and Sasha had headed and noted various rooftops as landmarks. But from there, the going was far slower, looking for even small signs of their passing, for newer grapple marks in a city littered with battle damage, though it had been overrun so quickly and completely, there were far fewer grapple marks than there should have been. It would have been a lot harder, had it been Trost. They'd truly fought for that city.

"I wish Squad Leader Zacharius was with us. He could probably smell her," Jean commented in frustration, as he looked around at the rooftops. "Crap, Connie, we probably lost them blocks ago. We're nearly all the way to… Fuck! That's it! If I was a Titan shifter, that's where I'd hide: the Garrison Supply Depot. There's gas, rifles, food, everything you need to withstand a siege, and a building to do it in. And that's our fallback position!"

"You should go back. Tell the others where we think they are. I'll go in alone from here," Connie urged, his need to save Sasha not enough to risk the others who might head to the Depot later being killed.

"Are you nuts? The second I leave, you'll try to save her, and get yourself killed," Jean argued. "I'll investigate, you warn the others. That's an order."

"Fuck you! I don't care if you're in charge. I'm not leaving her alone with those two maniacs. You saw what they did to Randall." Just the thought of them touching Sasha had him seeing red. Knowing they might be torturing her was driving him completely mad.

_Why am I wasting time talking to Jean?_ Connie took off towards the Depot, Jean's curses fading in the distance. He looked over his shoulder once, and saw Jean heading back to the others. _Good._ At least this way, he wasn't getting Jean killed too.

As Connie approached the Depot, he stopped using his gear and dropped to the ground. He needed to come in slow, low and quiet. He was certain they'd be watching from some of the upper windows. There was no telling how many Titan shifters there were. Just because they only knew about Reiner and Bertolt didn't mean there weren't dozens of others.

He was nearly at the ominous looking building when an all too familiar growling sound that seemed to come from all around him sent his heart into his throat. _Dogs! Fuck!_

Connie expected to see a pack of half starved abandoned pets, banded together like a wolf pack for survival. Instead, he saw something out of his worst nightmare.

The dog was towering above him, literally the size of a horse and twice as broad as one, with a massive chest, its neck as wide as his torso, and it's enormous head filled with rows of razor sharp teeth that looked thicker and longer than his entire hand, but most horrific of all, it was skinless, a walking anatomy lesson, every muscle showing in grizzly relief. _A Titan! The dog is a fucking Titan!_

Then it started barking, and every rational thought fled as he slammed on his gas and flew, barely realizing it saved him, as a second dog that he hadn't seen, just as horrific and grizzly as the first, pounced and landed where he'd been standing a split second before.

He fired his grapples wildly, keeping his gas on full throttle, as the two barking monsters chased him, realizing in terror that with every leap and lunge they were gaining on him, that he was going to die, he was going to be eaten! He was fleeing wildly, screaming endlessly.

"Sunny! Sunny, help me!" Connie yelled in desperation, irrationally begging his brother to save him, the way he'd saved him from his other nightmares. But this time, Sunny was hundreds of kilometers away and the snarling, slathering monsters were real.

Connie screamed wildly, in terror, as his gas suddenly gave out and he fell, plummeting not towards the hard street, but directly into the gaping maw of the lead demon dog chasing him. But suddenly something small and soft slammed into him, literally saving him from the jaws of imminent death, bringing him to the relative safety of a nearby roof. But as the dogs began leaping and lunging, climbing the damned building, he knew it wasn't high enough, or far enough, that he was still going to be eaten alive.

"_Hans, Otto! Lasst das sein!"_ a firm, shockingly familiar voice bellowed in command. _"Lasst ihn! Er geh__ö__rt zu mir! Geht zur__ü__ck! Besch__ü__tzt Reiner und Bertolt."_

And miraculously the lunging, slathering monsters stopped, as if they were some of Old Man Gregor's prize hunting dogs, listening to their master. And then astonishingly, the two dogs trembled and whined, like puppies told they weren't allowed to play anymore.

Connie stared in shock, still numb from terror. _Ymir. It's Ymir._

"_Was ist los? M__ö__chtet ihr nicht gehen?"_ Ymir asked, as she stood in front of the monsters that towered over her, and began rubbing on the muzzle of the larger of the two, who quickly hunkered down so she could reach between his ears. _"Aber ihr k__ö__nnt ihn nicht essen. Er ist ein Freund. Geht zur__ü__ck! Besch__ü__tzt Reiner und Bertolt." _

She gave them both a firm final pat. _"Ihr seid gute H__ü__ndchen."_ And the two dogs turned around and scampered off, heading back for the Depot.

"Are you alright, Connie?" a soft, gentle voice at his ear asked, and he belatedly realized it was Krista who had saved him.

He nodded, unable to speak or even move beyond the simple gesture, humiliated to feel hot tears streaming down his face.

Ymir scowled at him, and then her eyes flicked to Krista, and the look in her eyes softened. "Brilliant, Princess. Now what are we going to do? I thought we were going to stay hidden, so they didn't try to blow us up again. This wasn't part of the plan." Even though she was scolding her, it wasn't said with much rancor, but instead, with weariness and affection.

"Not to mention Bertie and Reiner aren't going to be thrilled, if they figure out who kept them from catching him. So, Baldy, did they see you, or were Hans and Otto just being good little guard dogs?" Ymir asked.

Connie wiped the tears from his face. "They kidnapped Sasha. I know you both don't like me much, you think I'm a big joke, but you like Sasha. They took her, and they're going to torture her to death, like Randall, if you don't help me save her."

Krista's eyes widened. "Randall? Someone… Are you sure it was them?" Krista asked, as if she didn't want to believe it.

"Jean recognized Valkyrie's hoofprints. It was them. How can you be working with them? It's true, isn't it? You and Ymir are really Titan shifters too, aren't you?" Connie accused rashly, realizing the moment he said it that he shouldn't have said so.

"What, so Yeager's a Titan and it's no big deal, but I am, and suddenly it's a crime?" Ymir demanded.

"You know he didn't mean it like that, Ymir," Krista soothed. "After what the others did, you can't blame him for thinking poorly of all of you." She turned to Connie, her eyes intense. "Ymir's not like the rest of them, Connie. She'd never attack humanity like that. She knows there has to be a reason, an explanation, that we didn't mean to betray them, that we didn't really attack them."

"What the hell are you talking about? They knocked down Wall Maria. They killed almost a third of us!" Connie shrilled.

"No, asshole. You did that to yourselves. Some of us shifters knocked down the Wall and killed a few thousand of you, in that attack. You're the ones who sent a quarter of a million people on a death march. Their deaths are on your heads. But then, that's nothing new. Humanity's done the same before. Not that you'd remember. I'm sure the records of Bataan and the others conveniently don't still exist anymore," Ymir accused bitterly.

"You admit to killing thousands of people, as if it's nothing!" Connie yelled back.

"No, it's not nothing. Genocide is never insignificant, but neither is any death. It's not the numbers that make it horrific. Every single life is precious. A single death is an atrocity against God," Krista said softly.

"Look, Baldy. You're trying to be all righteous about this, but ultimately, it's your fault: humanity's. Because you bastards betrayed and attacked us first. You broke off communications, and when we sent someone to make contact, to investigate, he never came back. Which means you killed him, because nothing could have kept Marcel from coming back to Bertie and Reiner except for death. He would have chewed off his own arms to escape, even if he wasn't a shifter and they wouldn't have grown back, if you'd merely captured him. So you killed him. You killed a fifth of the human Titan shifters. So don't expect me to shed a tear over a few thousand of you, not after all I've seen and survived. I witnessed the deaths of not millions, but billions, you squalling little brat. I saw humanity fall. I lost the ability to shed a tear over anyone over a century ago," Ymir proclaimed coldly.

Connie stared at her wide-eyed. _Billions? A century ago?_

Krista embraced her. "I'm so sorry, Ymir, for what we did. But that isn't Connie's fault, or Sasha's. It was our ancestors, not us. I know you can't forgive us, but please, you can't let them kill Sasha. I know you were pretending you were using her, that you just didn't want Reiner and Bertolt to know how much you really liked her, that you were afraid they might use us against you, if Annie ordered them to. Please, help me save Sasha?" Krista urged.

Ymir sighed heavily. "Damn it, Princess. You don't play fair. You know I can't resist you, when you give me those puppy eyes." And then Ymir kissed Krista, softly and tenderly on the mouth, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, as if she'd done it a hundred times before.

"Don't ever die, OK? If anything ever happened to you… I swear, I'll finish the job those nutjobs started," Ymir promised fervently.

Krista shook her head. "No. If anything happens to me, I want you to help Eddie become King and protect them all. He's the only chance we have for finding lasting peace. Please? Promise me Ymir."

"Tch. I still don't know what you see in that prick. Sure the avoidance formation was designed to work around Titans instead of engaging them, but ultimately his goal is to rid the planet of Titans. You do know that, right?"

"I know. But that's your goal too, remember? He's not out to kill Titan shifters, Ymir. If he was, Eren would already be dead. He sees the difference, even if he doesn't fully understand, not yet. And I can't bear the thought of losing him, too. He wasn't the one who killed our family, I'm sure of it now. I don't know who did, but maybe if I tell him everything I know, the two of us can figure out what really happened," Krista said.

Connie finally felt the horrific paralyzing numbness of his terror leave, as they talked, leaving him weak but able to think and move and act again.

_Who the hell is Eddie? Krista said the rest of their family was killed? And they want to make him King? Why? So she can really be a princess or something? I don't give a shit about any of that. What I want to know is: whose side are they on?_ "So you're not on Reiner's and Bertolt's side or you are? If you're not our enemy, then why did you attack Jean and me in the tunnel?" Connie accused warily.

"Because that bastard Jean flash blinded me with his damn lamp. Krista knew he'd hurt me and was just trying to protect me, and I knew you'd attack her for it, and was protecting her. We tried to pull back, and you dropped the whole damned tunnel on top of us. You're lucky I was already shifting and was able to protect Krista, because if you'd hurt her, I would have torn you to pieces," Ymir accused hotly, fuming.

"Is Jean alright? I didn't burn him too badly, did I? I didn't know what else to do," Krista said, wringing her hands guiltily.

"You burned his arm with the hot oil, but he didn't catch fire. And I got knocked out but not really hurt. You're just lucky you didn't hurt Sasha," Connie said fiercely.

"Since it seems like you're willing to talk nice, now that we saved your ass, how about you bring us to the Commander, so we can make sure everyone walks away from this mess in one piece?" Ymir suggested.

"First we have to save Sasha," Connie argued.

"Jeez, kid, you're like a dog with a bone, aren't you? Look, if they took Sasha, it's likely they did it to use her as a bargaining chip, to trade her to Levi for whatever you find in Yeager's basement. We're pretty sure whatever it is holds the key to what happened five-and-a-half years ago, not necessarily to why your transmissions stopped, but at least to what happened to Marcel. Because it can't be a coincidence that Dr. Yeager's son suddenly becomes a Titan shifter, a century after the Project ended, after one of us goes missing. The best way to save Sasha is to find out what's in that basement, and share that knowledge with them."

"What if Eren's father actually did something to that person Marcel? What if he even killed him? Won't they want revenge against Eren for that, and the rest of us?" Connie challenged.

"No. They know Eren doesn't know about it. The poor kid didn't even know he was a shifter. Kids aren't guilty for the crimes of their parents, no matter what we say about being pissed at humanity for what they did to us. And Dr. Yeager's wife was killed in the attack. So he might have escaped, when he disappeared, but he didn't get away without paying a hefty price," Ymir replied. "So come on kid. Like the evil alien monsters used to say in every bad science fiction movie ever made, 'Take me to your leader.'"

Connie didn't want to leave Sasha alone with Reiner and Bertolt, but those two Titan dogs would be back there now, and without Ymir's cooperation, there was no way he could survive against them. And if Ymir really was a shifter, and suddenly willing to talk about it, and it sounded like they could actually keep future shifter attacks from happening, then he really needed to bring them to the Commander. _Damn it! I'm sorry, Sash. Please don't die._

"Alright. I'll take you to Commander Erwin and the others. But if you attack them, or if Sasha gets hurt, you won't live to regret it," Connie threatened.

"Tch. I'd say you've got Titan sized balls for a little pissant, threatening me, but Titans don't have any," Ymir said with a snort.

"I need to fire a flare, first. I told Jean I'd fire a yellow flare if I rescued Sasha, or a blue flare if I couldn't get her, but I was still alive," Connie risked. The yellow was bullshit, but the blue would warn them Ymir and Krista were in the city.

"No flares. I don't need them setting up another ambush on us, like in the tunnel. Your best chance of getting Sasha back safely is us working with you," Ymir said suspiciously.

"Alright. No flares," he agreed, hoping he wasn't making a huge mistake.

0 0 0

Levi cursed as he saw the black flare streak over the rooftops after the sounds of more than one explosion. "How the fuck could they have fucked it up already?" he demanded, more worry than scorn in his voice.

"Maybe there's a large number of Titans on that side of the City for some reason, that we can't see from here?" Mikasa suggested.

"We have to go help them!" Armin squeaked, panic in his voice that Levi hadn't heard in quite awhile.

"Calm down, brat. If we see the flare, it's because they're still alive and able to fire it. If they were fighting for their lives, they wouldn't have the moment to spare," Levi reassured him, though he had his doubts. Bauer likely would have let the flare go with his final breath. He was the sole survivor of his doomed second Squad. _Fuck. Shit. I never should have sent him out there without me. _

"Levi, you're staying here," Erwin preemptively commanded. "Our top priority is reaching Yeager's basement. If they're in trouble, they'll head for the Depot. We'll check there for them before we leave the City, alright?

Levi scowled at Erwin and then he cursed as a flash of red caught the corner of his eye. He turned and cursed again, as just as he'd expected, he saw a red smoke trail crossing the black. "Shit! Fuck! Hoover and Braun!" He reached for his gas valve, when Erwin's arms fastened around him from behind, pinning him to his broad chest.

"Stay here, Captain! That's an order!" Erwin yelled in his ear.

Armin yelped as Mikasa tackled him. "Armin, you can't!"

"Arlert, everyone, I order you to stay here! Our first priority is reaching Yeager's basement. Kirstein and Springer have Blouse and Bauer with them, two archers, with dynamite. They're as prepared to deal with Hoover and Braun as any of us. While they're distracting them, we can gain access to the basement. We're nearly there," Erwin encouraged.

"But sir! What if…" Armin's eyes were pleading.

"If any of them die, I'll never forgive you," Levi threatened Erwin softly.

He felt Erwin tense, but he didn't release his hold. "I know. And it will still be worth the price," he said grimly.

_Fuck._ "You heard the man, brats. Let's get to that damned basement, double time," Levi ordered, fighting the sick feeling in his stomach, the sure knowledge that he was making the wrong choice, again, that four more Squad members were about to pay the price, if they hadn't already.

He kept close herd on Armin, making sure he didn't bolt. If Jean died, Armin would be wrecked. _Who do you think you're kidding? You'll be wrecked too. So don't die, brat._

They proceeded quickly and grimly towards Eren's house. There was a surprising lack of Titans. Did that mean that in spite of the black flare, the others were keeping them occupied? Or were Hoover and Braun?

The first sign they'd made it to the house was the way Eren, Mikasa and Armin all froze.

Levi followed their gaze to the house that stood before them, a huge boulder crushing half of it: the boulder that had pinned Eren's mother, before she was eaten. Levi could see Eren and Mikasa reliving the gruesome memory. Armin hadn't been there. Mikasa had told him he'd been finding the Garrison soldier, Hannes, to help them. The man who had saved them. But not Eren's mother. Hannes had known he'd die, if he faced the Titan, and instead, he'd saved Carla Yeager's son and adopted daughter. If it wasn't for him, he'd never have met the brats. _Would my Squad still be alive? If it wasn't for Eren, the Female Titan wouldn't have killed them, would she have?_

_Fuck. _He'd tried not to think about that before. And now sure as hell wasn't the time to.

Hange, Liam and Kearney were all examining the position of the boulder.

"I know it's a risk, but it really would be best if we can get Eren to move it. Just shift, move it, and change right back, so he doesn't attract a swarm of other Titans. We don't want to set off a large blast alerting Hoover and Braun to our position. Not to mention, every other Titan in the City," Hange reasoned. "The flash of light when you shift is bright and loud, but harder to pinpoint."

"But… I'm not sure I… What if…?" Eren stammered.

Levi hated seeing the kid doubt himself like that, knowing that it was his fault, because he'd panicked over the damned flying rodents, and Eren had been forced to shift to dig them out. "Eren, I think you lost control back in the tunnel because you were frustrated you couldn't stand upright, you were scared for Mikasa and your friends, and you thought we were trying to keep you from rescuing them. That's what made us your enemy, our trying to stop you from moving the rocks. This time, we want you to move the rock. It's simple. Shift, pick up the rock, move it, and shift back. You did it before, in Trost, a much bigger rock and a greater distance. You can do this. What's in the basement could be the key to winning this damn war, Eren. We need you."

Word by word, Levi saw the doubt in Eren's face replaced by the usual steely determination. "Right. OK. I can do this. Just give the order, Commander," Eren said confidently.

"Alright. Just as Levi said. Shift, move the rock to the side, to that spot right there, and shift back," Erwin instructed and pointed, obviously trying to minimize any chance for error by being as specific as possible.

"You can do this Eren," Mikasa coached.

"We believe in you," Armin assured him.

"Get to work, brat," Levi ordered.

"Right," Eren said, and then he bit his hand.

Levi felt everyone else tense as he did, at the usual flash of yellow-green light. He held his breath as Yeager Titan's gaze swept over all of them, and then rested on the rock. He glared at it, and then he roared, sending a bolt of ice down Levi's spine. _Fuck. Shit._

"Yeager, move that rock! That's an order, soldier!" Erwin roared back.

Levi tensed further as Yeager Titan spun around and glared at Erwin. Levi was ready to attack him, to protect Erwin, but he knew if he did, they'd lose all chance of Eren succeeding.

"Eren, please help us move the rock!" Armin yelled.

Levi silently cursed, as Yeager Titan's gaze whipped back around, and then Levi's eyes widened as he saw both Mikasa and Armin pushing at the boulder, as if they had a hope in hell of moving it. Then he realized what they were doing. They were literally trying to get Eren to help them move it, instead of ordering him to.

Yeager Titan's glare softened as he bent down towards the rock.

_Get the fuck out of there_, Levi silently urged Mikasa and Armin.

As if they heard him, the two of them pulled back, enabling Yeager Titan to wrap both massive hands around the boulder. Then, as if it were a feather, he lifted it. But instead of setting it down where Erwin had ordered him to, he turned and threw it, towards the faint remnants of the black and red trails that had dispersed in the still air over the City, with a defiant roar.

_Shit. Fuck. Don't go after Hoover and Braun,_ Levi silently begged.

Yeager Titan stood there inhaling and exhaling heavily. And then he turned back towards them. And to Levi's relief, he sat on the ground. Then he put his elbows on his legs, raised his fists and set his massive jaw onto them, looking for all the world like a sulking child, as his eyes slowly closed.

Armin and Mikasa were at the nape of his neck in the next instant, their swords flashing. This time, when they pulled Eren out, he wasn't burnt, or dazed or unconscious, but fully alert. "Is everyone OK? Did I do it?" he asked anxiously, looking from their faces to where the rock was supposed to have been set down. His eyes widened when he saw the empty street and flew to the house, his brow creasing in confusion. "Where did it go?"

"You decided to play catch with the Armored and Colossal," Armin said with a shaky smile, even as Mikasa hugged Eren.

"You did just fine, Eren," she assured him, glaring over his shoulder at Erwin, as if waiting for him to contradict her.

"Good job, Yeager," Erwin agreed. "Now then, it's time we saw what secrets this house has been keeping," he added, as he pulled the chain from around his neck, revealing the brass key.


	33. Chapter 33 - The Ninth Circle

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 33 – The Ninth Circle: Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here

Eren's hand shook as he reached for the key. "I'd like to be the one to open it, sir," he said softly.

"Alright, Yeager," Erwin agreed, handing him the brass key.

Eren felt adrenaline flood his body, as he walked down the short flight of stone stairs to the door. He'd never once been in the basement. His father had called it his workshop, and told the family it was off limits, that he had delicate experiments that couldn't be disturbed. Everyone else they'd known had used their basements to store potatoes and jam and all kinds of staples, or even wine, but not the Yeagers. Everyone else had a wooden door. Theirs was metal.

Eren frowned as he saw the four huge deadbolts, each twenty-eight centimeters long, ten wide, three thick, set deeply into the solid oak support beam that doubled as the right side of the doorway. He'd seen them before, that time he played hide and seek with Mikasa and Armin, and hid in the stairwell, knowing his friends would never think to look for him there, but never thought about how odd the door and locks were when he was little. _Why are there locks on the outside? Shouldn't they be on the inside, to keep people out?_

His eyes widened as he saw in the sunlight that filtered down the stairs for the first time in over five years that there was writing on each of the locks. The top one said Caïna, the one under it Antenora, the third one down Ptolomaea, and the final one Judecca. "Captain? Remember the four owls, how you said they might be booby trapped, that you had to either open them in a specific order, or open the right one? There are four deadbolts, in addition to the keyhole, and they have writing on them that I don't understand."

"Don't touch anything," Levi ordered. Moments later, he was at his side, a lit lantern held high. "Caïna, Antenora, Ptolomaea, Judecca. Fuck. I've seen those words before, somewhere. What the hell do they mean? Antenora. Antenor. Wasn't he the fucker who betrayed Troy? Ptolomaea. Ptolemy. He murdered his dinner guests. But fuck if I know what the other two mean, or why these are here."

Eren stared at Levi in surprise. It never ceased to amaze him, how smart the Captain was, how educated, how much he knew. He knew the Captain must hate having to admit not knowing what the other two meant, even though no one else knew either.

"Shit. I know, sir," Anders said unexpectedly, joining them at the doorway, belying Eren's thoughts. "It's the Ninth Circle of Hell: Treachery, from _Dante's Inferno_. You know, 'Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.' Round 1 of the Ninth Circle is named after Cain, and holds those who betray their own kindred. Round 2 is named after Antenor, as you said, and holds those who betray a political entity, like a city. Round 3 is named after Ptolemy, and holds those who betray their guests. And Round 4 is named after Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ, the Son of God, to Christians, or a prophet from God, to others. It holds those who betray their own lords or benefactors."

"Your father either had a really sick sense of humor, Yeager, or he was one twisted fucker," Levi commented. "Was he very religious? One of the old religions? A Christian?"

Eren frowned and shook his head. "No. Not at all. He was a doctor, a scientist. He'd never believe in something as nebulous and distant as some kind of god."

"If he did something like this, would it be a warning, or a boast?" Erwin prodded from behind them. "Would he be cautioning others not to be betrayed, trying to keep them safe, or telling the world, no matter how subtly or craftily, that he had betrayed someone?"

Eren's stomach sank and he bit his lip again, stopping just before he tasted blood.

"He… um… sometimes he was pretty arrogant, sir," Armin piped up from behind Erwin. "I'm sorry, Eren."

"So then, he might have been gloating, smug about something he'd done, that he thought he'd gotten away with?" Erwin said thoughtfully.

Eren swallowed hard as he remembered the look on his father's face, when he showed him the key, and told him he was going to show him what was in the basement. Eren had been so proud that his father trusted him with his big secret. Now he wished he hadn't. Because there had been arrogance in his eyes, as well as pride, even overshadowing the pride. And both had left a cold feeling in the pit of Eren's stomach, which had left him feeling confused, and maybe even a little afraid. Because his father's eyes… for a single, awful moment, there had been something… wrong… in his eyes. As if the kindly face of the doctor was just a mask he wore. He almost hadn't looked human. And then his mother had laughed, and he'd been his father again, and Eren had felt foolish for letting his imagination run away with him.

"Eren?" Levi prodded.

"He… um…" Eren swallowed hard again. "If my father was the one who put this here, and he must have been, then… then it was because he was boasting, about how clever he was," Eren admitted reluctantly.

"So, your father might have betrayed a relative, Shiganshina, a guest, and the King?" Erwin prodded. "Perhaps one of the King's agents, or an ambassador to the City? Did you have a relative like that?"

"I… I don't know. As far as I know, Mom and I were his only relatives. And then Mikasa. He didn't have any brothers or sisters, and his parents died before I was born. He didn't even really have any close friends that I know of. And the City… he saved Shiganshina, he didn't betray it. There was a plague, only a few months after Mikasa came to live with us. You must have heard about it. Almost the whole City was infected. They quarantined us from the rest of Wall Maria. They sealed the Inner Gate so no one could leave. If my father hadn't discovered the cure, the City would have become our tomb.

"And… we didn't really ever have guests. Father didn't like people coming to the house. Mother used to always go out to her friends' houses instead and he'd treat his patients at their houses. And… and my father wasn't a traitor to the King! He had no reason to be! The King's the one who gave him the medal, for saving the City," Eren argued, growing angrier by the moment. How dare the Commander accuse his father of being a terrible person, when he was a wonderful man, when he'd saved the City?

"Calm down, brat. We're just trying to figure out the significance of what he wrote, if it's a danger to us, somehow. I'm sure, unlike mine, your father was a saint. Someone's father has to be, right? Fathers everywhere can't be the assholes I've seen, otherwise women would stop fucking them and making babies with them," Levi said crassly.

"So did your father have any special number he thought of as lucky, using the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4? What do you think the safest order to open these locks in would be?" Levi challenged.

"1, 2, 3, 4," Eren said confidently. "Top to bottom. He was always very methodical. He kept everything neat and in order."

"Armin, Mikasa, do you agree?" Levi asked, pissing Eren off all over again.

_He's my father, damn it! Well, and sort of Mikasa's._

"Yes, Eren's right. That order," Armin agreed immediately, mollifying Eren, somewhat.

"That's right," Mikasa confirmed, making him feel a little better.

"Alright then. Top to bottom it is. The rest of you, go to the top of the stairs. Just in case," Levi ordered.

"No. I'll do it," Erwin argued.

"No sir, let me. If it's a trap, if it's going to blow my arm off or something, I'm the only one who will be able to grow it back," Eren argued.

After another few moments of tense debate, Levi reluctantly withdrew, and left the door to Eren, at Erwin's order, confirming Eren would be most likely to survive if there was some sort of trap.

Eren took a deep breath, and one by one, slid the bolts to the side. Then, hand trembling, he inserted the key in the keyhole. He half expected there to be an explosion, or a flash of light, something spectacular or horrific, as he inserted the key, and turned it in the lock. But there was merely the softest of clicks.

Biting his lip again, careful not to do so hard enough that it bled, he pulled open the door. It opened with a sound almost like a sigh, as if the door was relieved to finally be revealing its secret, and then the sunlight from behind him pierced the windowless gloom of the room that hadn't been disturbed in over five years.

"Wait!" Levi snapped, and Eren froze, in the middle of lifting his right foot.

"I'm an idiot. It could still be booby trapped. Just because we have the key doesn't mean it's safe to enter. Let me go first," Levi ordered.

_Damn it! It's my basement, my legacy! But it would be an incredibly stupid, anticlimactic way to die. _

"Levi," Erwin chastised, his name alone an admonishment.

"Not to walk in, but to check for traps. The brat will still be first in, in case I miss something," Levi offered in appeasement.

"Alright," Erwin agreed reluctantly.

"OK," Eren mumbled, backing up and shifting to the side, allowing his slender superior to move past him.

Eren watched as Levi examined the doorframe, and then the floor around the open door. "I'm looking for trip wires, pressure plates, any kind of traps," he explained, to Eren's surprise. He hadn't expected Levi to say anything, and was honored that he was explaining it to him, so he wouldn't feel stupid and useless.

"Yeah, for a doctor, he was one dangerous fucker," Levi said, as he pointed out a series of nearly invisible wires set at various heights within the doorframe. "Stand back, everyone. It's going to take me a few minutes to disarm these safely," Levi ordered.

"I'm staying here, to protect you," Eren insisted. He could tackle him, protect him with his own body, if something went wrong.

Levi glared at him, but then reluctantly nodded. "OK brat."

Eren watched impatiently as wire after wire, Levi disarmed the doorframe. But he noticed that, for some reason, Levi seemed to be becoming more and more tense with each wire successfully and safely removed, not less. Was it just because the odds kept falling further in favor of something going wrong?

After Levi finished removing another of the wires, he brushed the sweat off his forehead, and Eren was surprised to see that, not only was he sweating, but his hand was shaking slightly. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"This fucking basement. There's something wrong about it. Something off. The whole thing reeks of danger. It's driving me nuts. Not just these damn traps. There's more. My stomach only gets like this when… Alright. This is the final wire."

Eren held his breath, and was certain Erwin and the others were too. Levi didn't scare easily. If he was this on edge, there was definitely something in the basement to be afraid of.

He removed the last wire and… nothing happened.

Eren exhaled shakily, and heard Levi do the same. "Hand me that lantern," he ordered. "I want to make sure there aren't any other traps, pressure plates in the floor, or something else." Mikasa passed him down the lit lantern she'd been using to illuminate the doorframe and wires, and Eren peered over Levi's shoulder as he flooded the darkened room with light.

Eren's eyes widened at what the light revealed. It looked like a neat, organized version of Hange's laboratory. There were long narrow tables with glass beakers and vials in tidy but dusty rows in racks and others in complex arrays, stained various colors, apparently from evaporated fluids, most of them a brownish color that reminded him disturbingly of dried blood. The table opposite the door contained some kind of equipment that he'd never seen before, and a narrow bookcase beside it held what had to be at least 50 volumes.

He risked poking his head around the door frame to see what lay on the far wall, and his eyes widened. "Is… is that a coffin?" he asked, hating that his voice squeaked like Armin's when he was at his most afraid. He felt like an idiot. Even if it was, even if there was a body in the long, narrow wooden crate on the table, it's not like he hadn't ever seen a body before. He'd seen a number of them, most of them grizzly and dismembered.

Levi frowned, as he eyed it warily. "Even if it is, it must be empty. A body would stink, even with the lid on. This whole place would reek, if there was a body inside."

"Unless it's mummified!" Hange argued excitedly from directly behind them, almost startling Eren enough to jump into the room.

"Damn it, Shitty Glasses!" Levi snarled, making Eren feel better for being spooked by her.

"It's cool and dry in here, likely with poor though not nonexistent air circulation, as evidenced by the dust. Natural mummification occurs in caves, in deserts, even in bogs, and… Oh my God! Is that a radio?" Hange squealed in glee, the coffin momentarily forgotten as she pushed past both of them, knocking them aside into the room, as she made a beeline for the equipment against the wall.

"You idiot! You could have just gotten us all killed!" Levi snarled.

Hange turned and blinked, having the grace to look sheepish. "Oh. Right. Sorry. I… but Levi, it's a **radio**!"

"A radio?" Kearney said from the doorway, and a moment later he was inside, O'Seanessey right behind him.

"Arlert, Anders, inside. Ackerman, you stand watch outside. Warn us of Titans or shifters, and tell us if Kirstein and the others return," Erwin ordered.

Armin and Anders went immediately to the bookcase, scanning the titles hungrily, stroking the spines reverently, while Hange, Kearney and O'Seanessey chattered eagerly over the radio, whatever that was, and Levi and Erwin scanned the room. As Armin took one of the books off the shelf, a small rectangular piece of paper fell out from between the pages, unnoticed by Armin.

Eren bent down and retrieved it, glancing at it curiously and froze. It wasn't paper, exactly, there was some sort of clear protective layer over it, like glass, transparent but flexible somehow. It was a photograph of two men, in what looked like some sort of military uniforms, but ones he'd never seen before, blue with red pin striping and swords at their sides, laughing and dancing together, in one another's arms, completely entranced by one another, the look of love in their eyes so beautiful it was almost painful to see. The photograph was shockingly vivid, the colors bright and perfect, nothing like the sepia toned photographs Eren had seen before. It looked like a miniature painting, except far too full of life to be one. But the most astonishing thing about it was that he knew both men.

"Well, I guess that answers the question about whether or not Reiner and Bertolt are a couple. Although I didn't know either of them knew how to smile, let alone laugh," Eren said, holding it out to Armin. "It fell out of the book you're holding."

"It's your father's journal," Armin said, as he took the photograph from him. His eyes widened as he studied the picture. "Your father knew Reiner and…? No. Take a closer look, Eren. That may be Bertolt, but it's not Reiner. Look at the scar on the blond's jaw," Armin said, pointing at it.

Eren's eyes widened. It was a distinct, clear line, as if it might have been made by one of the swords they were wearing. "That's not Reiner? Holy shit. He looks enough like him to be his twin brother."

"And it can't be Bertolt either. Remember, this picture is at least five years old, and five years ago he would have been too young to…" Armin flipped the photo over curiously as he was speaking and his eyes widened. "Lieutenant Marcel Philipp Braun and Lieutenant Bertolt Alexander Hoover, joined in wedlock this day, October… what…? But that was 106 years ago!" Armin cried in astonishment. "It… it must have been their ancestors, right? Reiner's and Bertolt's?" Armin asked, stunned.

Erwin was running a critical eye across the experiments laid out on the lab benches, but Levi took the picture from them and studied it, front and back. Then he handed the picture back to Armin and then headed for the coffin, his eyes narrowed in speculation. A moment later he started cursing up a storm, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

Eren ran to the coffin and stared wide eyed at the four locks that held the lid down, each bearing the same words as the locks on the door to the basement. Then he gaped at the words painted on the lid in dark brown, recognizing his father's distinctive handwriting. _Blood. It looks like it's written in dried blood,_ Eren thought, even as Levi read the words aloud to the others, as Eren read them silently to himself, in growing disbelief and horror.

"If I believed in my father's scripture, I would say, 'Here lies one of God's Nephilim, misbegotten son of Seth and of the daughter of Cain, an ill-formed giant cloaked with the innocent face and form of one of His purest angels.' But my father was a pious fool and his God a cruel joke. Here, beneath these words written in our true savior's blood, is the proof that Christ is a lie, and the science and medicine I wield as a weapon are the only true powers in this world."

"Holy shit," Anders cursed, and then he did something odd with his hand, touching his thumb to his middle and index finger, moving his hand to touch his forehead, and then his stomach, then his right pec and his left. "Lord have mercy on us all," he whispered.

Eren's eyes widened. Anders was speaking to God, the way Armin's grandfather used to, with quiet humble prayers. Crossing himself, Armin had called it. The fingers represented the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Eren knew that much, something about God, his Son, who was somehow also God, and the spirit who had fathered the Son, because God was impotent. Or something. It was kind of confusing, especially because Armin had gotten all red faced and sputtering when Mikasa had started asking about the sex part, about how could a woman have a baby without sex, with this really weird look on her face.

Eren's eyes widened as he looked at Armin and saw that Armin had gone pale, shaking his head in denial, and was crossing himself too, staring at the coffin in shock. "Oh God. It's his fault. Your father didn't just challenge God, he spit in his eye. He… oh my God. A Titan shifter. Your father captured and killed a Titan shifter. He's the reason they attacked. He's the reason Wall Maria fell, that my grandfather and your mother and everyone died," Armin accused in horror.

"A shifter? Then he might not be dead," Hange cried eagerly, as she ran over to the coffin. "The locks on the door, on the coffin itself. Why bother locking it, if he was dead? What if he's just trapped? Powerless, like Leonhart? Kept out of the sun, hidden away down here for years?" she asked excitedly, opening the first two locks before even Levi had a chance to move.

"Hange, stop! Think of how enraged it would be, trapped like that! It could easily have been driven insane, if it's been conscious all this time. Since it appears to be docile, we need to keep it that way. Open the coffin in the tunnel, if we open it at all," Levi cautioned.

"No, you're opening it now. And if you ever want to see Sasha again, and if any of you want to leave Shiganshina alive, you'd better pray that's Marcel in there, and that he really is still alive and whole," an unexpected voice said from behind them.

"Ymir! And Lenz! How the hell did you… Where's Mikasa? What did you do to her?" Levi demanded, blading his swords and fisting his hilts threateningly

But Connie astonishingly darted out from behind Ymir and Krista and stood protectively in front of them, his arms outstretched. "Captain, wait! Don't attack them! Mikasa's fine, she's still on guard outside, and they're on our side!" Connie swore frantically.

"Ymir and Krista saved me from the Titan dogs, and they've been explaining why the others attacked Wall Maria on our way here. It's because whatever humans had been in communication with the shifters broke our Pact with them, and when Reiner's only surviving relative, his nephew Marcel, Bertolt's husband, went on a recon mission to Shiganshina to find out why, he never came back, and they thought we killed him," Connie continued in a rush, panting for breath.

"Now Reiner and Bertolt have captured Sasha, Ymir says they're going to use her as a hostage to trade for what we find in the basement. Bauer and Jean were supposed to come warn you that they're using the Supply Depot as their base, and they have Sasha, but Mikasa said she hasn't seen them, that they never came back. I don't know what happened to them," he finished, sucking in a deep breath.

"Titan **dogs**? Sasha's been… You're not coming anywhere near this damned coffin until you tell me who you really are and why you're here," Levi said coldly to Ymir.

To Eren's shock, Ymir snapped to what looked to be attention, only the salute was all wrong, her hand going to her head, not her heart. "Rav Seren Ymir Akusta Arditi, Titan shifter codename Banshee, formerly an undercover operative of the Israeli Mista'arvim, but for the past century unofficially attached to the survivors of the United States Marine Corps FORECON Alpha Squad, led by Major Annabelle Jasmine Leonhart, Titan shifter codename Ice Queen. I'm here to rescue or recover our comrade, United States Marine Lieutenant Marcel Philipp Braun, Titan shifter codename Quicksilver."

Krista bit her lip. "I can't tell you my real name, but I was born within the Walls sixteen years ago, and I'm a human, not a Titan shifter. I've been on an undercover mission, working for the Military Police to investigate Commander Erwin Smith of the Survey Corps, on multiple charges of assassination of nobility, as well as treason and insurrection against the King," she said, her voice apologetic, as she looked at Erwin.

Erwin paled and Levi leapt protectively in front of him, facing both women.

Krista raised her empty hands in a non-threatening gesture. "I've determined Commander Erwin is innocent of the charges, though my contact in the Military Police is currently the only one aware of that fact. If anything happens to me, or to Ymir, the Commander will be arrested, and likely hanged," Krista threatened, her soft-spoken voice at odds with her harsh words.

"While that matters to all of you, personally I don't give a shit if Erwin lives or dies. Marcel is key to humanity's continued survival. You're going to let me open that coffin," Ymir commanded coolly.

"And if you're lying? If you're not working with Braun and Hoover, and you're part of some opposing Titan shifter faction that wants to see that shifter Marcel dead?" Levi challenged.

"Marcel and Bertie were the ones keeping the rest of us sane, these past hundred years. You know Bertie, but you've only seen him broken. Seeing him with Marcel was like seeing Armin and Jean together, the way it reminds you there are still innocent and pure and good things in this world full of monsters, the human ones and the Titans.

"Marcel was the closest thing I ever had to a kid brother. Reiner lost all three of his kid brothers in the War, the one that sparked Project Cronos and created the Titans, plunging the world into the Apocalypse. I'll give you all a full history lesson later. But if you keep that poor kid in that fucking coffin one second longer than he already has been, forget worrying about Reiner and Bertolt. I'll be the one to rip your heads off and shit down your necks. Now step aside, before this gets ugly," Ymir threatened.

"Please, Commander. I promise we'll both tell you everything, but we have to know whether he's in there, whether he's alive. We have to see," Krista begged.

Everyone jumped at the sound of the loud metallic click, as Eren opened the third lock.

"My father is missing and my mother is dead. This is my house, and everything in here belongs to me, including this damned coffin," Eren said, his heart racing, as he opened the fourth and final lock.

**A/N:  
****All names, characters, and incidents appearing in this work are fictitious. ****Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. ****No identification with actual persons, places, and/or organizations is intended or should be inferred.**** Arditi (aside from relation aspect), Sayeret and Mista'arvim descriptions below are courtesy of Wikipedia.  
**  
**Rav seren ("Chief Military Commander" or Major) Ymir Akusta Arditi -  
**Mother from Finland, father from Israel. Speaks Finnish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, Farsi, German and English. Ymir was part of the Sayeret, until recruited for the Mista'arvim. Working undercover when all hell broke loose. Broke cover and aided Annie's FORECON unit. When Ymir was mortally wounded, Annie used her blood to turn Ymir into a shifter, to save her, so she could continue to fight alongside them.

**Ymir** (usually male but can be female – Finland) is a Norse nameof a mythical giant. People with this name have a deep inner desire to serve humanity and to give to others by sharing money, knowledge and experience, or creative and artistic ability.

**Akusta**, female form of Augustus (Finland) meaning great, magnificent, venerable; derived from the Latin verb augere "to increase".

**Arditi – **grand niece of Esther Arditi (1937 – 2003),Israeli soldier, the only female recipient of the Medal of Distinguished Service, and cousin to Dani Arditi (Born 1951), head of the Israeli National Security Council from 2007 – 2009.

**Sayeret** (Hebrew: סיירת, pl.: _sayarot_), or _reconnaissance_ units in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), specialize in intelligence gathering and surveillance. In practice, these units specialize in commando and other special forces roles, in addition to reconnaissance (the degree of specialization varies by units and current needs).

**Mista'arvim** (Hebrew: מסתערבים , _lit._ Arabized; Arabic: مستعربين , _Musta'arabin_), also spelled as mistaravim, is the name given to those counter-terrorism units of the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Border Police in which officers are specifically trained to operate undercover, in enemy territory, in order to assassinate or capture wanted terrorists.


	34. Chapter 34 - Mummies and Murderers

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:**

**If you like my Titans stories, you might also like **_**It's Not What You Think**_**, listed under D. Gray-Man. As indicated in the summary, it's a Karneval crossover story (but it isn't in the crossover section). I've also published an original four book high fantasy series featuring a number of gay and bisexual characters, Descent of Kings, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

**Tonto is the fictional Native American (a.k.a. Indian) companion of the Lone Ranger. Certain tribes of Native Americans communicated over long distances using smoke, sort of in the same manner as Morse Code or telegrams. Calling Eren 'Tonto' was a politically incorrect zing by a certain abrasive individual.**

**Finnish translation:**

_**kultaseni **_**= sweetheart**

_**pikkuveli**_** = baby brother**

Chapter 34 – Mummies and Murderers 

Eren lifted the lid of the coffin and flung it wide open, his heart catching in his throat. Inside was a man, or what had once been one. He wasn't rotted, but his naked corpse was completely desiccated, withered and wrinkled like a grape left in the sun too long and turned into a raisin. His lips were pulled back from his teeth, his closed eyes and cheeks sunken, his straw blond hair dull and lifeless, his ribs prominent and belly concave, his pelvis bony and limbs sticklike, and the hands folded together on his chest reduced to clawed talons. He was completely horrific.

"He looks like he's been mummified," Hange said, her voice a respectful whisper, instead of making an exuberant pronouncement, as she normally would.

"Oh God. Marcel. It's really you. We finally found you," Ymir whispered, her voice catching on his name, and choking out the rest of the words, as she reached out and caressed the barely discernible scar on his leathery cheek, with a gentleness Eren hadn't known she possessed, a single tear running down her cheek, and quivering on her chin, until it fell with a gentle splash onto the dead man's withered nose, and was immediately absorbed.

"Hey Lieutenant. It's time to wake up now," Ymir urged the lifeless corpse, pulling the canteen off her belt, opening it, and holding it to his mouth, as if he might suddenly come to life and start drinking from it. The water splashed down onto his bared teeth, running between them and down his chin and jaw, saturating the wool blanket that lined the coffin. She gently poured more of it onto his forehead and cheeks. Most of it ran off, but some of it seemed to soak into his skin.

"Krista, baby, give me your canteen," Ymir ordered, holding out her hand for it.

"Ymir? I don't think…" Krista began tentatively.

"Hange, can you tell whether he's still alive?" Eren asked, voicing the question Krista couldn't finish.

"We need to bring him into the sunlight. If he's still alive, that's what will give him the power to heal," Hange stated confidently. "His entire body looks stiff and brittle. We need to carry the coffin up the stairs, instead of trying to remove him from it. We don't want to snap any limbs off," she cautioned, with her usual lack of tact.

"Ymir and Krista, you take the head side, I'll take his feet," Eren said.

"I'll help you," Anders volunteered. "And if he's truly gone, if we're unable to revive him, I'll help you bury him properly and respectfully, wherever you want him to rest, with whatever custom he would have wanted. I'm versed in the funeral rituals of Christians, Jews, Muslim, Hindi, and a number of other ancient religions. A side part of my family's business," he added in explanation.

"He's not dead," Ymir insisted, though Eren wasn't sure whether she truly believed it, or just wouldn't allow herself to accept the alternative.

"We need to close the lid to carry it outside," Eren said gently_. Is that how Annie is going to look? How long does it take, to look like that? If he's still alive, can Marcel still think and feel? Is he aware? Is he still sane, being trapped like that? _

_Why would my father do something like this? Did this shifter Marcel have something to do with that cure he found for the plague? Was Titan shifter blood the cure? No. I don't care how big he is, there's no way he could have given enough blood to… _

_But Annie said her blood would have turned Armin into a shifter. Does that mean everyone in Shiganshina…? Did my father turn everyone into…? No. People died after the plague, just like always. No one became a Titan. _

_None of this makes sense! I hope his journal explains it, or maybe some of those other books, his laboratory notebooks or whatever they are._

Ymir and Krista led the way up the stairs, with Eren and Anders following, and Levi following warily behind them, with Hange trailing after them, not wanting to miss seeing what happened to Marcel in the sunlight.

There was no sign of Mikasa, and for a moment Eren panicked, thinking Connie had lied, until he saw her on the rooftop across the street, where she had a better vantage point. Firing her grapples, with a single expert shot of gas, in a fluid motion, she was at street level. "Are we moving out already?" she asked, surprised. "Is that what we came for? What is it?" Her eyes widened in shock as she read the inscription on the lid.

Krista shot out her grapples, and flew to the roof, taking Mikasa's place as lookout.

"Marcel, a Titan shifter. Bertolt's husband, and Reiner's nephew. There's all kinds of things the Commander's going to want from the basement. We're just trying to revive Marcel, so Reiner and Bertolt don't kill everyone. Sasha. They took Sasha. Have you seen any sign of Jean or Bauer? Connie said they left before him, that they should have been here first."

"No. He already asked me about them. There's been no one, and no Titan's either, though there's a lot of Titan activity near the Depot. Connie said Reiner and Bertolt were there," Mikasa said, her eyes widening as Ymir lifted the lid and she saw the body.

"Oh my God. Why would your father…?" Mikasa asked, confused.

"He was playing God. I think it's how he cured the plague." Eren looked at her in horrified anguish. "It's his fault, Mikasa. Wall Maria fell, Shiganshina fell, Mom died, Armin's grandfather died, everyone died, because he took Marcel, kept him prisoner and bled him dry, for the cure. The King gave him a fucking medal, my father congratulated himself for saving a few hundred people, and hundreds of thousands, a quarter of a million people died, all because he…" Eren couldn't even speak past the lump in his throat, the fury and grief.

"I need more water," Ymir demanded, holding out her hand to Eren.

He'd missed seeing her use Krista's canteen, too busy talking to Mikasa. He handed her his canteen wordlessly and watched as she repeated what she'd done inside, again pouring some into his mouth as if he could drink, but then pouring the rest onto the desiccated tissue of his face too. Only this time, something different happened. Instead of the water just rolling off and soaking into the blanket under him, it soaked right into his skin, it was absorbed instantly, like his skin was a dry sponge, visibly fleshing out the gauntness of his cheeks, filling in the wrinkles, every splash taking years off his face.

"Thank God. Water, more water," she demanded, holding her hand out to Mikasa.

Mikasa obediently handed Ymir her canteen. "There's a well just a block away. If the bucket's still intact, and the well hasn't run dry or been caved in, I can bring you more. Meanwhile, give me the empty canteens," she urged, seeing them tucked beneath Ymir's maneuver gear straps.

"You shouldn't go alone. I'll do it," Eren argued.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'll be fine. You stay here. They'll need you, if Reiner and Bertolt attack," she argued.

"Keep an eye out for them," Eren urged.

"Worrywart. Of course I will. You stay safe too. I love you, Eren," Mikasa said.

"I love you too," Eren responded, still amazed at how easily the words came now, when they'd been so hard to say at first, and the truth of them even harder to feel.

He watched her go and then turned back to Ymir and Marcel. She trickled water over his torso and arms and legs, running out quickly.

But then Hange appeared, half a dozen canteens in her hand. Eren hadn't even realized she'd gone back inside. "This is the last we can spare, until we refill the others," she said, her eyes widening when she saw the marked improvement happening right before her eyes.

"Mikasa went to the well," Eren told Hange.

Ymir eagerly snatched another of the canteens and poured this one over Marcel's face. And now Eren could easily see the resemblance, not only to Reiner, but to the picture. The previously all but indiscernible scar on his cheek stood out in vivid relief.

"So he wasn't always a shifter. He has that scar. It's like the scar on my leg, from when I was five. No matter how many times I shift, it's still there. But I don't get any new scars. So he wasn't born a shifter. You said something about Project Cronos, and a war, and making shifters. Why? Why would someone purposefully create enormous human-eating monsters?"

"War. The last one left the armed forces of the world severely depleted. Everyone was terrified one of the countries who hadn't fought would overwhelm the ones who had weakened themselves. We all knew to keep an eye on the Americans, that they were desperate enough to do something stupid. That was my mission. I infiltrated their Marine Corps and worked my way deep into their Special Forces, trying to find out what they were up to. And I did. Only things went to hell too quickly. There was nothing I or anyone else could do to stop it," she said grimly, as she opened one of the new canteens and poured more water onto Marcel.

"It happened just like the US had feared. They were attacked. The names of the countries don't matter. None of them exist anymore. Project Cronos was nowhere near ready, so they removed all the safeguards, and accelerated testing, moving from the single successful canine trial to human trials, using Special Forces soldiers as the guinea pigs," she said bitterly, as she continued to water Marcel, as if he were a plant, and he continued to flesh out, as the sun and water worked their magic.

"Unfortunately, what they didn't realize was how quickly and drastically the virus mutated. Annie's team, Alpha Squad, was a successful trial, everything they ever dreamt of: soldiers that didn't need to eat, or for the most part, even drink, to survive, that grew to be giants, with proportionate strength, that could not only heal at an astonishing rate, but even regenerate flesh and bone, regardless of the severity of injury, regrow entire limbs in a matter of moments, and ones that had such a horrific appearance, that even had they not been the size of giants, even seasoned soldiers would run screaming from the predominantly skinless monsters attacking them. And best of all, they could change back, and pose for the cameras, kissing mom and eating apple pie." Her voice was acerbic, sarcastic.

"Then there was the second trial: Beta Squad. At first, they looked the same. But instead of following the orders of the researchers, they attacked the men giving them. Not like soldiers, but like wild animals. They grabbed them and smashed them and tore bloody chunks out of them and ate them. The lab tried to abort the test, to destroy the test subjects, but they hadn't expected anything like what had happened. They blew off their limbs, their heads, shot them with hundreds of rounds, used rocket launchers, but they kept coming. The entire base was overrun, before the rest of the military knew there was a problem. Hundreds of soldiers were dead, dozens of them devoured, the lab was destroyed, and the virus was released.

"Conventional weapons were all but useless against the Titans, and entire cities were already changing – the contagion spread like nothing we'd ever seen before in our time – it was like the Black Death in Europe consuming everyone in its path. People were mutating into inhuman monsters that, worst of all, couldn't ever change back. It spread like wildfire, across the globe, to almost every continent, every country. We nuked a few cities and made some Dresden style firestorms before we realized it was hopeless to fight them without wiping out the people we were trying to protect, our cities and infrastructure, without destroying civilization worldwide. The higher ups figured the only way to combat them was with more soldiers like Alpha Squad.

"There had been at least one back-up facility – the Americans never did anything without multiple back-ups and fail-safes. We don't know how many other Titan shifters were successfully created before communications failed, infrastructure failed, governments failed, and our nations fell. The last bastions of the diverse military organizations of the world banded together into the International Corps of Engineers to create protected Sanctuaries to save as many humans as they could, in areas where strict quarantine had already been enforced and there were still humans left to save.

"This was one of thirteen such Sanctuaries, though not all of them had Walls. Some had natural barriers. I know island Sanctuaries like Hawaii, Japan, and Australia banned and shot all flights out of the sky, as elements of the American and other military units went rogue to protect their bases, and preserve some isolated pockets of humanity, even as civilization was disintegrating around their ears, as the Centers for Disease Control around the globe were destroyed.

"That was before we reestablished contact with one another and came up with the Sanctuary plan. I don't know the locations of all the Sanctuaries of Mankind, or which of them still exist. I know Hawaii was one, led by General Mariko Yamashita. There were other areas of the world where the civil government was strong enough to survive and do what needed to be done. The entire continent of Australia became a Sanctuary, led by Queen Elizabeth III, her Governor-General Vanessa Fairbanks representing her, while she remained in the British Isles and made them another bastion. Japan was another, under Empress Yuri Yamamoto and Prime Minister Hiro Tanaka.

"I only know a handful of names and very few other details. Not that any of that means anything to any of you. You've never even heard of those places. But I'm actually hoping that detailed records of them, as well as information on the others might be here in Eren's basement. Because that radio in there? That's likely the one that used to signal us, before it fell silent."

Mikasa had come up with the bucket of water while Ymir spoke, and she stood there, holding it, as Ymir finished emptying her last canteen onto Marcel.

"I don't understand. What's a radio? What do you mean signal? It's a machine that sends up smoke flares or something?" Eren asked, puzzled.

Ymir snorted. "No, Tonto. If it was smoking that would mean it was seriously malfunctioning. It's tech from the world before the Titan Plague. You can speak into the transmitter, and someone with a receiver tuned to the right frequency tens or even hundreds of kilometers away can hear your voice, like you were standing right next to them. It's what people used to communicate with one another before cell phones, chip coms and computers. Not like you know what those are. We all but relegated ourselves back to the Middle Ages, with what we did to the world," Ymir said with a sigh. "But your father wasn't the operator. It must have been your mother. It was a woman's voice, the contact who spoke to us. Her name was Hikan Kyaku, but we're pretty sure that's a false name she used to protect her identity."

Eren gaped as the wooden bucket Mikasa was holding fell a half meter onto the cobblestones of the street with a loud crack, the water sloshing wildly over the sides. He looked up at her face, and was stunned to see it drained of all color.

"What's wrong?" he asked her in concern, wrapping his arm around her, shocked to feel she was trembling.

"Snowbird," Mikasa whispered past bloodless lips.

"What? Mikasa, talk to me," Eren begged, frightened. He'd never seen Mikasa look so… shattered, not since the day six years ago when he had rescued her from her kidnappers.

She licked her lips, and turned to Ymir. "It what my father used to call my mother. A pet name. Snowbird. Hikan Kyaku isn't a name. It's Japanese, for Snowbird. Which means, Eren's mother wasn't the radio operator. Mine was," she said, sounding as stunned as Eren felt.

Ymir's eyes widened. "Oh my God. So the reason humanity broke the Pact, the reason you stopped transmitting…"

"Was because my parents were murdered. And I didn't know… Eren's father must have found the radio, and brought it to his basement. He… Maybe he knew? If so, those books… some of those books might have been ours too? Or… I don't know! I was only nine! I… Does this mean anything to you?" she asked frantically, ripping off her jacket and pulling aside her shirt so violently she tore it, revealing the beautiful tattoo that she always kept so carefully hidden, showing it to Ymir.

Ymir frowned, shaking her head. "I can tell it's Asian, Japanese, I guess, but I only speak Finnish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, Farsi, German and English. You can't read Japanese?"

"I can, but it's not a word, it's a number: 21.449. Does that mean anything to you?" she asked eagerly.

It was Ymir's turn to look stunned. "Oh my God! We've been trying to figure out the frequency for the past six years. Hell, even before that. She'd never tell us. She said it wouldn't do us any good anyway, even if we had a long range transmitter, because we didn't know the language her contacts spoke. I got kind of pissed at that, and asked how she was so sure, because between the five of us, including Marcel, we know 23 languages, and I listed them for her, and she told me, 'I know because I'm one of the only two people on this continent who speak it.'

"Japan. The Sanctuary she was in contact with was the one in Japan! You. You're the second person. She taught you Japanese, so you… the code! Did she give you the key for the code? The messages are encrypted. There's a code book that would be used as the key, it could be anything, a bible, a journal, anything with numbered pages, where page numbers and paragraphs and sentences and words can be indicated through numbers, and translated into words, into coded transmissions," Ymir said eagerly.

Mikasa's eyes widened. "My mother's herbal medicine book! She was always reading it, and writing while using it, late at night, by candlelight. I'd wake up sometimes and see her working so intently, while father and I were sleeping. But I'd peek at the book sometimes, and she hadn't written anything on the blank pages at the end. She wasn't adding to the book, she was writing in a second book, one I never saw more than glimpses of.

"She told me she was going to start training me to be a healer, like her. She said… she said it would open up a whole new world to me, that the world wasn't as small as people thought, that Walls couldn't keep us penned because we had wings, because we were both Snowbirds. She called me her little fledgling and told me soon I'd learn how to fly, that she'd teach me," Mikasa whispered, tears streaming down her face.

"We have to tell Reiner and Bertolt. Even Annie. Maybe once she hears, now that we have Marcel back, if he recovers… He was like a kid brother to Annie, too. You've seen how hard it is to get under her skin, but she's a sucker for puppies like Marcel. And Armin. That's why she liked him, why she was so protective of him. Armin was so sweet and gentle, so shy but fierce, with that devilish mischievous side. He reminded her of Marcel."

Ymir looked down at Marcel and Eren looked too. He was astonished at what he saw. In a matter of minutes, the dried, desiccated, corpse-looking body had completely changed. Now the naked man looked almost healthy again, from the chest up at least, as if he was merely sleeping. He hadn't looked anything like Reiner before, but now, he literally could have been his twin brother. No wonder Bertolt used to look so longingly at Reiner! It must have been heartbreaking for him, seeing the face of the man he loved on someone else, day after day and not knowing what had happened to Marcel.

Ymir picked up the bucket and began carefully pouring water over Marcel's stomach, groin and legs.

"That's amazing! I mean, I knew we could regenerate limbs, which I guess is more amazing, but still… He didn't eat anything, and didn't even drink most of the water, you just poured it on him and it soaked right in. How does it work? Do we really only need sunlight and I guess water to survive? I still feel hungry, all the time. Is that just because I'm a teenager? Or is it just my stomach saying I'm hungry, but I don't really need to eat? And why don't we eat people, and the other Titans do? And why do they, if they just vomit us back up as a bolus, and can't digest us?" Eren demanded, eager for answers to some of the dozens of questions that had been swimming around in his head ever since he first found out he was a shifter.

"He didn't actually even need the water, not like this. We can absorb water vapor from the air, and that's all we need to survive, with maybe a drink or two once in a while in dryer climates. I was just hastening the process along this way, because I couldn't stand seeing him like that. Yes, we really only need sunlight and water, like plants. Better than plants, because they require other nutrients they glean from the soil and we don't need to eat. Your stomach will hurt for a while if you don't, but once you've stopped long enough, the need just sort of switches off. But we all still eat, because it's one of the things that reminds us we're still human. Besides, taste is one of the enjoyments in life. 

"As for why the other Titans eat humans, that's actually pretty sick. It's instinct. Reproductive instinct. In order for a human infected by the Cronos Virus to become a shifter, he has to be eaten by a Titan. There's an enzyme in the stomach acid that is a catalyst for the final step of the change. In the lab, we were just injected with it, to finalize the change. It's actually not something the scientists purposefully engineered into the Project. It was a byproduct, nature's way of perpetuating the mutated species man created. Or what we used to call God's cosmic joke on humanity, born out of His disgust for us fucking with His creation," Ymir said wryly.

As if hearing them speaking about it triggered it, Marcel's mouth suddenly began opening and closing, as if he was miming eating.

"Marcel! Marcel, can you hear me? Are you awake,_ kultaseni_? Aware? It's Ymir. Can you open your eyes? Can you understand me?" Ymir urged, caressing his cheek again.

At the gentle touch his eyes snapped open, a look of wild terror in them, as his whole body stiffened, as if he was trying to bolt upright, but couldn't. Eren's stomach knotted, seeing someone who looked so much like Reiner reduced to a state of abject panic.

"Calm down,_ pikkuveli._ You're safe now, you're free," Ymir soothed, stroking his face, his hair.

The wild blue eyes lost their terror, confusion replacing it. His lips began moving, as if he was speaking, but he wasn't making any sound, or mouthing any words Eren knew.

"Here, drink some water. Your vocal cords are probably still a mess, and your muscles and tendons probably still haven't fully rehydrated, which is why you can't move yet. There you go, that's a good boy," she encouraged, as if she was talking to a five year old as he drank the water she poured into this mouth. "Honey, just do one thing for me. Do you know who I am? Can you understand me? Nod your head if you can or blink your eyes, so I know you're still all there, alright?"

Eren shivered. He'd never thought he'd ever hear desperation in Ymir's voice.

To their mutual relief, Marcel nodded, in a brief, jerky motion, even as he blinked, and his lips continued to mouth nonsense between drinks.

"Bertolt's safe, honey, and Reiner, and me. Annie's gotten herself into a bit of a mess, but that's nothing new, right? But don't you worry about her. She's fine, we're all fine," Ymir said, her voice catching on the last word, as tears began streaming down her face.

Marcel's eyes widened in panic.

"Crap!" Ymir said, angrily wiping away the tears. "I swear we're all OK. It's just... I don't know how much you remember, how long you were aware, or for what part of it, but you've been missing for a while, _kultaseni._"

Marcel turned his head slowly and deliberately, his blue eyes widening in shock and then locking on Eren's with frightening intensity.

"That's Eren, sweetie. You can smell him, can't you? You always did have the best nose of any of us. We wouldn't have known if we didn't see him shift. You're right, he's one of us, honey. Not from the Project. Kind of like me, except Annie's blood wasn't the trigger this time. We'll explain it all to you, I promise. But first, we're going to take you home, _pikkuveli._"


	35. Chapter 35 - Demons of the Past

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
CAUTION:  
Brief mention of domestic violence resulting in death, and of child abuse, including rape, in the distant past.  
**

Chapter 35 – Demons of the Past

Hange stared at the newly revived Titan shifter, spellbound.

"Damn it, Shitty Glasses, we need you down here! The Titans aren't going to stay away forever. Get your ass down here and help us," Levi yelled in frustration from the stairs.

Hange jumped guiltily and turned, heading for the basement. She hadn't realized Levi had left, that he'd been working while she watched Marcel recover. She took the stairs two at a time. "Alright, what did I miss?" she asked, clapping her hands together.

"We're packing up everything we think is important, but we need you tell us if there's anything significant we're missing. We're taking all the books, of course. In addition to the other texts, Dr. Yeager has at least twenty volumes of lab notebooks and journals, so we might actually be able to learn all the fucked up things that bastard did," Levi bitched.

It didn't look like any of the experiments had been moved yet, that she could see, but she wasn't certain. "I hope you remember the way things go back together, especially with the radio," she said anxiously, seeing the priceless equipment had already been crated for transport. Hange still couldn't believe they'd actually found an intact looking radio! She'd never seen one outside of books. She had thought there weren't any within the Walls.

"While you were dicking around outside, Anders has been sketching everything," Levi assured her.

"Grab that last book off the bottom shelf and stick it in your pack. It didn't fit in the crate with the others," Levi ordered, as Erwin flagged him down.

Hange headed for the bookcase, bemoaning missing reading the rest of the titles, but what she'd just seen was a once in a lifetime opportunity, the reanimation of a mummified Titan! Her research on Eren was completely validated, without having to endanger her only test subject further.

Weeks earlier, she had kept Eren in her lab, out of the sun for three days and didn't feed him or give him any water, to see what would happen. He had become dehydrated far more quickly than a regular human, due to his higher body temperature. His respiration, heart rate, and body temperature had continued to rise, far more dramatically and quickly than in cases of dehydration in normal humans. His confusion, tiredness and irritability had quickly progressed to fatigue, fainting and delirium. The seizures had hit without warning and were so severe she had thought she was going to lose him.

She'd stopped the experiment and initiated an IV immediately, in both arms. Eren's face… it had started to look like Marcel's, only not nearly as severely desiccated and wrinkled, and his skin had been dry and brittle. At the time she'd thought Eren was mummifying far more efficiently than any of her mice ever had, in the experiments she'd conducted when she was a child, before her father had killed Nefertiti.

Hange fought a shudder at the memory of her father beating her beloved only friend and protector to death in front of her, as her cat had valiantly tried to defend Hange when her father had attacked her. He'd been even more brutal than usual. Hange had nearly died too. It was that night that she'd finally found the courage to stand against him, that she'd begun her plot to frame him for treason and get him burned at the stake, justice for her mother and Nefertiti, and vengeance for herself, for everything that vicious monster had taken from her.

She snatched up the book Levi had indicated, needing something to help distract her and repress the dark memories. With a guilty glance at Levi's back, she cracked the book open to a page that was wrinkled and water stained, making it stand out from the others. She'd just take a quick peek at part of their new treasure trove and then take a look at the dusty experiments.

0 0 0

"Damn it, Shitty Glasses!" Levi cursed after turning around and seeing Hange reading when she needed to be working, intending to chew her out, but the rest of his words died in his throat. Hange was shaking, tears streaming down her face, leaking out from beneath her glasses. Hange had only ever cried over Titans. Was she reading about Marcel? What the hell had the fucker written in his journal that could affect her so traumatically?

Levi ran over to her and yanked the book away, careful not to lose Hange's place. He needed to read what she had, so he could fix it somehow.

_Thankfully my anxiety – no, I must be honest in this journal, as it is a __record of all we have done, and I am a man of science, logic and reason – my fear was unfounded. We have not, after all, been discovered._

_Hindsight is 20/20. I made three grave mistakes: I did not realize Prakash was beating his wife, until after he had killed her; I did not realize most of Prakash's contributions were actually Vidya's work; and I allowed Prakash to continue to abuse and molest Zoe, once I learned what he was doing, instead of intervening. _

Levi began cursing viciously, not even caring that half of what he said was in Greek, and worse, that the part that wasn't included some of Kenny's favorite words and phrases. Hange had confided in Levi what her father had done to her, after he'd figured most of it out for himself. She'd calmly admitted what she'd finally done to that sadistic, twisted fucker in revenge. Yeager had known Hange's parents, worked with them, known that fucker was beating and raping his daughter, and done nothing to stop it. He continued to read the damning text.

_If only the reprehensible man could have found a healthier avenue than sadism and domination to relieve the pressure, and what I now realize was true terror, he would still be alive, and our plans would be that much closer to fruition. I won't call his detestable actions pedophilia, for as the term implies, at his heart, even the most base perverter of innocence in some fashion loves the children he destroys, and it is clear Prakash never loved his daughter. And he loved his wife too much, obsessively so. _

_Frankly, once Vidya was dead, the only true value to the man lay in his secret library, which was unfortunately burned along with him. I do not mourn the man, but how I mourn the loss of those invaluable, irreplaceable volumes! Had I been able to buy those precious tomes, or steal them from him, I never would have continued to involve him in our plans, though he was a cautious man and would not have been easy to silence, and I have yet to become a murderer. Although he was not cautious enough, obviously. _

_On the surface, it appears Zoe is far more her mother's daughter than her father's. To conceive and execute such a flawless, meticulous plan at her young age, especially after having been degraded and denigrated for years, to engineer her father's capture and execution, to see him burnt at the stake for treason, when she never dreamt he truly committed such a crime, reflects the brilliance of her mother that lies within her. But sadly, the very vicious cruelty of her actions demonstrates she is at heart her father's child, and not a true scientist – she never would have allowed those banned books to burn beside him, had she been. She would have hidden them away for her own use. Were I a vengeful man, I might succumb and kill her for that crime, but vengeance has no place in science. Yet another proof that Zoe will never be the scientist her mother was._

Levi slammed the book into Erwin's chest, to keep from destroying it, when he wanted nothing more than to shred every page with his bare hands or chop it into pieces with his swords. Then he grabbed Hange by her shoulders and shook her. "Zoe, listen to me. Yeager was a fucking moron. You are **nothing** like that animal who tortured you. You're your mother's child, the one who loved you, and raised you, and protected you from that monster, until he killed her. You're the very definition of the word 'scientist'. Every aspect of your life revolves around science. Science is your God and you are its most devout and ardent worshipper, and I've got all the fucking evidence I need to prove that hypothesis to you.

"You **didn't** allow his library to burn, Zoe. You risked your life, saving that knowledge, those precious books. You knew you could die, that you would have been burnt alive too, but you didn't care. You saved them anyway. Because knowledge is more important to you than your life. Life is cheap: anyone coward can risk other people's lives. But endangering your **own** life, for the sake of knowledge, knowing the reward is far greater than the price could ever be, **that **is the mark of a true scientist."

Levi saw that she'd stopped crying, that the hopeless desolation in her face, that horrified, devastated look in her eyes was gone.

"Thank fuck," he said sincerely, yanking her forward against him and embracing her, hard. "Anytime the demons are howling too loud, and you start to feel otherwise, you just fucking come talk to me, alright?" he muttered in her ear as he squeezed her.

"OK. Thanks Levi," Hange sighed into his ear.

"Good. Now come on. We need your help to know what else to take, other than that fucking book, and the others, and the radio, what part of this equipment you don't have, or have never seen before, if any. We already have Anders sketching everything he's seeing, while Armin, Erwin, Kearney and Liam examine it, but you're the one we need most."

Levi was relieved to see his words seemed to cement the ones he'd spoken before into her brain, but he'd make damn sure of it, once they got back to base. Like his own, her psyche was too damned fragile, when exposed to the wrong stimuli. With what she'd told him of her past, she couldn't help being cracked, but he'd make damned sure she never shattered.

Levi remembered the day Kenny broke him, the day the light of his soul went out, as clearly as he remembered the day Furlan relit it to a sputtering, guttering flicker, years later. He remembered all too clearly the last time he'd seen Kenny, too, before the recent rooftop encounter.

"_Didn't you ever wonder why I never came after you? Surely you don't think you hid well enough that I couldn't find you?" Kenny scoffed, fortunately saying so before Levi could. The worst of it was, Levi didn't know whether Kenny was telling the truth or whether he was just fucking with him. There was no way to tell, even after years of studying the man. Kenny wasn't a pathological liar: every lie was carefully constructed, with a specific purpose. Fuck, he hated that man!_

"_I __**wanted **__you to leave, Levi. The whole point of my taking the time to toughen you up like I did was so that you'd grow a pair and be able to survive out on your own," Kenny claimed, calmly explaining away fucking __**years **__of denigration and abuse. _

"_Yeah, you're a fucking saint," Levi had snapped back, cursing himself in the next moment, for showing sarcasm in front of Kenny. He'd felt his heart skip a beat as the soulless black of Kenny's eyes darkened a shade further, and the instinct to run or grovel was almost irresistible. Not that either had ever worked, of course. Or fighting._

"Levi, what's wrong?" Erwin demanded from right in front of Levi, making him jump.

_Shit. Fuck._ He'd gotten sucked back into his fucked up past for a minute there.

"Nothing. I just want to get out of here as quickly as we can. We should have been attacked ages ago, and there's still no sign of Jean or Bauer, not to mention Braun and Hoover and those fucking Titan dogs Connie told us about. And we still have no idea whose side Ymir and Lenz are really on, or even who the hell Lenz really is. And we all know who that person in the Military Police she's working for could be. We need to get back to our base, where we're safest," Levi spat, the thought that Lenz could have been a spy for Kenny all this time, one trying to get Erwin hanged or burnt at the stake for treason, infuriating him.

"We're almost finished here. Then it's just a matter of getting the crates to the tunnel. I'd have brought the cart if I'd known there would be this much valuable equipment and so many books. I honestly was just hoping for some papers, or a journal, if we were lucky, and I more than half expected to find an empty room, that the shifters would have beaten us to it, or a crushed one, that the boulder would have destroyed everything inside," Erwin admitted.

Levi nodded. Although he'd actually never thought they'd live to reach the basement. It had seemed like an unattainable quest, like finding the Holy Grail. Of course, leave it to God's sick fucking sense of humor that the key to immortality wasn't drinking wine converted to Christ's blood by the Grail, but was instead Titan blood. _Nephilim._

Yeager was one fucked up megalomaniac, to have written what he did, apparently in the poor bastard's own blood. Were Ymir's attempts to revive the shifter Marcel working? Hange hadn't said anything about it when she came back down, and he didn't want to risk asking her now, when she appeared to be back on an even keel after losing it so completely.

Levi wondered what that smug fucker Yeager had thought once he realized he got his own wife killed, that he'd traded the lives of a single city for the entire outer ring, for every man, woman and child formerly protected by Wall Maria.

A choked scream was the first sign Levi had that his fears were realized, that they'd stayed too long, but Levi's heart slammed in terror when he realized it was Eren's scream he'd heard, and he was screaming Mikasa's name.


	36. Chapter 36 - Till Death Do Us Part

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:**

**CAUTION:  
The chapter below contains loss of bladder and bowel control, plus blood, gore, violence and death.**

Chapter 36 – Till Death Do Us Part

"Eren, are you alright?" Mikasa demanded frantically, laying him down on the roof. The Aberrant had come out of nowhere, leaping over the roof while Krista was distracted warning them about another Titan approaching them from three blocks away in the other direction. If Eren hadn't screamed her name and slammed into her, knocking her away, she'd be the one lying legless and motionless on the rooftop now.

Levi appeared beside them, looking pale and shaky. "I heard… I thought… " Levi stuttered, his frantic, haunted eyes roaming everywhere over her for injury, before looking down at Eren. "Shit, brat, you're a mess," he accused, even as he knelt and felt for the pulse in Eren's throat. "Still alive," he confirmed aloud, as if needing to hear the words.

Ymir joined them on the rooftop, Marcel slung over her left shoulder. "Fuck. I got that one and Krista got another, but we've got six more immediate incoming and nearly two dozen not far behind. Protect Marcel. I'll draw them off, give them something bigger and tastier to hunt," Ymir claimed, as she set him down beside Eren and then dove off the roof in a flash of yellow-green light.

Mikasa gasped as Ymir transformed into a Titan midair. Ymir's Titan form was nothing like Annie's: hers had skin over well-defined muscle, but no visible breasts, with long gangly limbs ending in viciously clawed fingers and toes. Her face was truly hideous, with a high forehead, straggly strands of greasy looking hair, and rows of razor sharp teeth that didn't look remotely human. And then she screamed, a ululating screech of sound that brought Mikasa to her knees, covering her ears, expecting to feel her hands coated in blood from ruptured eardrums. Even the Titans seemed stunned by her scream. And in that split second that they froze, Ymir Titan attacked, and mercifully, the scream stopped.

There was none of the vicious but beautiful strength, power and grace of Annie's attacks. Ymir shredded and tore huge bloody chucks out of the backs of the Titan's necks with her fangs, her clawed hands, and even her taloned feet. She was the center of a steaming whirlwind of gory destruction, leaving a swath of carnage in the Titan's ranks, driving them to a frenzy, as they fought to reach her, as if embracing their own doom.

"It's a good thing she's on our side, for the time being," Levi said, admiration in his voice. "Protect these two. Some of them aren't following her." Then Levi was gone, joined by Krista, of all people, as they began attacking the stragglers, even as the rest of the Squad poured out of the basement to aid them.

"Mikasa!" Eren yelled, making Mikasa jump, as he struggled to sit, the jagged, bloody ruins of his thighs already fleshing out, as his legs regrew, gaining in mass and volume as she watched.

"I'm fine. You saved me," Mikasa assured him.

But then there was another of those inhuman screaming wails, even more shrill, louder and longer than before, and Mikasa doubled over, covering her ears, her face burning in humiliation as her bladder suddenly released, and a stream of urine ran down her legs.

"What's wrong?" Eren demanded, grabbing her.

"That sound!" Mikasa yelled, knowing he'd never be able to hear her over it, vaguely wondering why he wasn't covering his own ears. _How can he bear it?_

Marcel sat up too, swaying, and then he lurched to his feet, stumbling unsteadily on the shingles of the roof.

"Stay down! You have to stay safe!" Mikasa demanded, barely able to force herself to stand, as if somehow the eerie scream all but paralyzed her. But she was certain that if anything happened to Marcel now, the shifters would kill them all and smash Wall Rose and Wall Sina to rubble in revenge. She couldn't believe Marcel and Eren weren't covering their ears; it felt like that scream would drive her mad, that it would cripple her mind as well as her body.

"Help… her…" Marcel pleaded, terrified eyes on Ymir Titan, rasping in a voice gravelly with disuse that she somehow, miraculously heard over Ymir's horrific cry.

Mikasa cursed. Ymir Titan was being overwhelmed, dozens of Titans surrounding and attacking her, devouring her alive, even as the Corps all too slowly cut her attackers down one by one.

"**ERWIN!" **Levi's panicked, anguished scream was nearly as loud and shrill as Ymir Titan's as he aborted his current attack and lunged for the falling Commander, whose severed grappling lines were flapping wildly as he plummeted towards the ground.

Mikasa dove off the roof, a surge of adrenaline coursing through her, the scream, Marcel and even Eren momentarily forgotten, desperate to save Erwin for Levi, even though she knew with sick certainty that neither she nor Levi was close enough to save him. 

0 0 0

Hange screamed in denial and outrage, slamming her gas valve fully open, as she saw the Titan lunge for her falling Commander teeth first, memory of their disastrous last mission vivid in her mind, of the hand lashing out and Erwin slamming into the ground. This time she had to be in time!

She rocketed forward and felt a tremendous surge of victory, of relief, as she knocked Erwin safely out of the path of the Titan's teeth, setting him safely down on a nearby roof, even as her own flight was brought to an abrupt halt as she felt an odd tug on her legs, and she slammed onto another roof with a jarring thud, only a few meters from him.

Hange looked down, afraid one of her grapple lines might somehow have tangled in the shingles and wrapped around her, and blinked owlishly in incomprehension and confusion when she saw only a bloody pool beneath her, where her legs should have been. She reached out a disbelieving hand, touching the gory, spurting, jagged stump of her right thigh, and then lifted her hand, staring at her warm, wet, red palm, trying to process what had happened.

"**ZOE!" **

She turned towards the voice. "Levi? There's something wrong with my le… you're not Levi," she finished, staring into the two, bright, dinner plate sized eyes glaring at her, above a double row of startlingly white teeth. And then there was darkness, and wetness, and silence as she slid downwards, landing with a loud splash.

Suddenly there was pain, screaming agony, yanking her forcefully back to full awareness too late. Hange began dogpaddling desperately with her hands, realizing she was boiling alive in the superheated stomach acid of a Titan, that she'd been **swallowed**, that she'd been bitten almost in half, that… "Holy shit. I'm dying."

_No. I can't be. I have to save myself. Cut myself out somehow. _Even as she thought that, and desperately tried to plan what to do, her mouth filled with the burning fluid, as the heat and blood loss and shock took their toll, and she slipped beneath the surface.

_I can't die. They need me. I have to help them. Erwin. Levi. _

But she could feel her trachea and lungs filling with the steaming liquid as she convulsively inhaled.

_Levi. I… have… to…_

0 0 0

"**NOOOOO! ZOEEEEE! YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU FILTHY DISGUSTING BASTARD! GIVE HER BACK!"**

Mikasa watched in horror and terror as Levi raced screaming after the Titan that had just eaten Hange, completely oblivious to his surroundings.

She rocketed off after him, intent on ensuring he didn't follow Hange, that he not become another casualty. "Levi! Stop! She's gone!" But her cries fell on deaf ears.

"Eren! Armin! Anyone! Help me protect Levi!" Mikasa yelled desperately, as five Titans converged on their distraught and irrational Captain as he dove towards his prey with a single-minded intensity that was about to get him killed.

"**NOOOOO!"** she screamed as a gigantic hand caught and yanked one of Levi's grapple lines, and he was jerked towards a waiting mouth like a fish on a line.

But Levi met the face with slicing blades, slashing the monstrous creature's eyes, blinding it. Cutting his own cable to free himself, he swung around its head and sliced it viciously in the neck, and then leapt clear, just before the second and third Titan reached him.

Mikasa downed the fourth Titan and then to her relief saw Eren, sans maneuver gear but back on his newly reformed bare feet, cut out the back of the neck of the fifth one, that had made the mistake of coming too close to the roof Eren was standing on, as Levi fought the second and third simultaneously, felling one after the other.

Panting and gasping for breath, uncharacteristically winded because of his still tender lungs, Levi spun around and started screaming obscenities, looking frantically for his prey, but not finding it. There was no sign of the Titan that had killed Hange, the one he'd been chasing.

Mikasa's heart clenched as she saw the tears streaming down Levi's face, and she started to head for him, jerking back instinctively when a giant shadow darted out at her, but not quite quickly enough, as the previously hidden Aberrant lunged between the buildings.

Her scream of agony when its teeth closed on her left shoulder dragging her down to the street was drowned out by Eren's beloved voice screaming her name, as he slashed its neck, moments too late, even as she jabbed the biting Titan desperately in its face with her right sword.

Instead of letting go of her shoulder, it yanked its face away, ripping her left arm off with it, its final act of carnage as Eren felled it.

Grimly Mikasa dropped her remaining sword and closed her shaking right hand over the empty, bloody socket of her left shoulder, knowing that there was no way to apply a tourniquet to a wound like that, that she'd bleed to death in minutes, that it was hopeless, but still refusing to die without trying.

"**MIKASA!** Oh God! Armin! Help me! She's…**AAAH**!" Eren's panicked scream turned into a roar of pain as the Titan neither of them had seen appear behind him bit him, and then changed into a roar of animalistic rage, as he transformed into a Titan in its mouth before it could complete the bite, ripping the monster's head apart with his metamorphosis.

"Eren," Mikasa whispered, as her blood cascaded down her side, pooling on the cobblestones beneath her as she staggered towards him, as Eren's Titan form tore his would be murderer apart.

Yeager Titan flung the body away from him and then spun around and fell to his knees at her side.

Mikasa reached out her remaining bloody, shaking hand and caressed Eren's enormous right cheek, as his huge face hovered over her. "Love you," she whispered almost soundlessly, as her hand fell down and away, leaving a bloody stripe.

Her eyes swam with tears as Eren opened his mouth. For a warm moment she thought he was actually going to speak, even as a Titan, to tell her he loved her one last time, as she struggled to stay conscious, to breathe, to live for him. But as his mouth descended over and around her, there was only silence, and darkness, and wet warmth.

She felt herself falling, as she plummeted into far greater wetness, a lake, a boiling inferno, and she tried to process what was happening, as soothing liquid heat enveloped her.

_Eren? He… ate me?_

Shock made it hard to think, until a single pure thought cut through the fog, pain and fear, and she smiled contentedly, at peace. _Now I'll be a part of him, with him forever. _

Then there was nothingness.

0 0 0

"**EREN NOOOO!"** Armin screamed in horror, stumbling towards Yeager Titan in disbelief, tears streaming down his face. _Oh God. He ate her. Eren ate Mikasa. _

The second shift was too soon after the first, and unplanned. Eren had lost his mind completely, and not just tried to crush them this time. He'd eaten her.

Yeager Titan spun around and looked down at him, his glowing green eyes focused on Armin and then he lunged for him.

Armin screamed in terror as Eren's hand closed around him, and he heard multiple people shouting his name, and Eren's, and Mikasa's. He expected to be squeezed, crushed, or popped into Eren's mouth to join Mikasa, even as he heard the sound of collapsing buildings and chaos all around him.

He fought to see what was happening to the others and to his horror saw the Armored Titan was attacking only two blocks away, a huge swarm of Titans converging around him, eager to help him destroy them.

"Eren, let me go! Help them! We have to save them from Reiner! It's the Armored!" he screamed, struggling wildly, but his arms were pinned to his sides, and he couldn't grab his swords.

To his horror, Eren began to run, at full speed, not towards the others, but away from them, towards the Inner Gate. He rammed into the larger Titans that tried to block his path and leapt over the smaller ones, instead of fighting them, when before, as a Titan filled with hatred for his fellow Titans, he'd always attacked them.

Armin struggled futilely, crying and begging and pleading with Eren to let him go, even as he numbly realized to his humiliation that somewhere along the line he had lost control of both his bladder and bowels.

_Dead. Mikasa is dead, like Hange, dead and eaten, only worse, because Eren is the one who… _**"WHY? WHY DID YOU EAT HER?"** he screamed in anguish, his voice momentarily drowning out Ymir Titan's increasingly distant wailing scream and the horrific sounds of his friends dying. "How could you? She loved you, we both did, and…"

He sobbed uncontrollably, inconsolably. His sister was dead, eaten by his brother. _Hange was right. Eren finally lost his humanity. She… oh God. Hange is dead. Mikasa is dead. Is Jean…?_

"Eren, stop! Jean, Sasha, our friends. We have to help them! We…"

He fell silent. It was too late.

_Dead. They're all dead._

And soon he would be too. 

**A/N:**

**Hange speaking to Levi about Erwin, O**_**utmaneuvered,**_** Chapter 58 – Past and Future Treason:**

**"He was so… inspirational. He had a plan, you could see it, hear it, every word he spoke so carefully measured, every look, every movement… And when he saw that I understood… he took me into his confidence, under his wing… it was the first time anyone had ever wanted me. The first time I was valued. You've seen it, Levi: those amazing eyes. I'd go to hell and back again, kill for him, die for him.**"

**Hange speaking to Levi, O**_**utmaneuvered,**_** Chapter 58 – Past and Future Treason:**

**"Not everyone believes in reincarnation, but I like to think it's real… life is way too short, for too many people. And even when it's not, when it's over, it's just over. The world ends, with every person who dies, you know – no one will ever view the world in quite the same way you do. Yet it still goes on, there's that eternal aspect too. So souls, if there are souls, should get to come back to earth, to do everything they didn't do the first time, or do things again that they really love…"**


	37. Chapter 37 - Chaos and Devastation

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
CAUTION – Suicidal thoughts and plans, and frank discussion of bodily functions.  
**

Chapter 37 – Chaos and Devastation

Jean was cowering against the inner wall of the half demolished house, his hands pressed to his ears, trying to drown out that horrible shrieking scream, fully in the grip a flashback of Trost, shaking wildly, hugging the gas canister he'd just retrieved from the uniformed skeleton in what had once been someone's living room, as if it was a teddy bear, or Armin. _Armin._ The horrific face of the stalking Titan from his nightmares was replaced by the earnest, lovable blond, and suddenly he could move again, think again.

He discarded his empty gas canister and hooked up the retrieved one. It was covered in dust and rust, not exposed to rain, within the remarkably intact house, but to the blood of the rotting body of the Garrison soldier who'd crawled into this house to die. No, to live, but he'd died anyway. _Armin. Please don't be dead,_ Jean begged.

"Please, God, let there still be gas in here," Jean prayed, and then he tested it, turning the valve behind the nozzle slowly and carefully. _Nothing._ He turned it all the way, listening for the slightest hiss. _Oh God. Nothing. _He felt tears of fear and frustration fall.

It had been a nightmare, crossing the City, trying to reach the others; he'd used up all his gas and dulled every single blade in his scabbards, circling further and further away from his target in a desperate effort to stay alive. _Did Bauer make it back? Do they know about Sasha, even if they don't know she's in the Depot? Have the rest of them left Shiganshina already? Did they abandon me here? Or worse, check the Depot looking for me, and all been killed by Reiner and Bertolt?_ _Is Armin dead? Is it my fault?_

Jean felt the same crushing despair envelope him as he'd felt in the barn, when reading Marco's letter, as tears streamed down his face. _I don't even have a rifle._ He looked at the dulled blade. The tip was still sharp, only the edge dulled beyond use. _If I hold it in front of me, point upwards and slam my throat into the tip?_

Eyes riveted to the blade, his breath caught._ Marco? Where are you? Aren't you going to stop me this time? Oh God. Is Marco gone too?_

At the sudden chorus of inhuman screams that tore through the air shaking the glass panes in the windows, like all the demons of hell were outside, trying to get in, to devour his soul, Jean screamed, throwing the sword across the room, as if it had bitten him.

_I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I wasn't going to!_

He fisted his hair and curled into a fetal ball against the wall, shaking wildly, a puddle of urine pooling beneath him as he tried to make himself invisible, knowing it was hopeless, as the ground shook, once, twice, three times, as thundering feet charged past, drowning out that other, hideous, wailing scream.

Gradually, he realized to his dazed relief that horrific ululating scream had been blessedly silenced, even as there was a familiar, welcome roar, just as infuriated, that had Jean springing to his feet. _Yeager Titan! Eren is nearby, still alive! And if Eren's there… God, I'm such a coward, such an idiot! I'm coming, Armin! Please be alright!  
_

He ran across the room, retrieving his all but useless sword. He made a quick check of the street and then darted down it, sticking close to the buildings, as Yeager Titan's roar repeated again and again, amidst the thundering sound of what now sounded to be dozens of enormous running feet.

Jean saw a familiar landmark, one of the ones Mikasa and Eren had drilled into his head on the rooftop above the Military Police prison, and realized he was less than a dozen blocks from the Yeager home. It looked and sounded like a full-scale war had broken out at Eren's house, as if every Titan in the City had converged upon it.

"No! There's no way they can fight that many. Even with Yeager Titan, they…" he whispered, as he ran full tilt now, caution and every instinct for self-preservation forgotten.

Belatedly, Jean realized that the thundering footsteps he was hearing as the ground shook under his feet were now coming from behind him, not in front of him. He spun and gaped in horror. _The Armored Titan!_

Reiner's Titan form was bearing down on him, inexorably, like a thundering herd of horses stung by hornets. Jean started running for the nearest building, his head turned to the side, riveted on the approaching Titan even as he ran for cover, knowing it was futile, that he was going to be stepped on, pulverized, kicked, unless those giant pounding feet miraculously missed him.

To his horror he saw the Armored's eyes lock on him.

_Oh God, Reiner saw me! I'm going to die!_

Jean stumbled, and fell, pitching headlong into the dirt, crying out as his injured arm slammed hard into the ground, knowing he was about to be crushed, his eyes inexorably drawn towards his doom.

His eyes widened in terror as without even breaking his stride, Reiner's gigantic left hand scooped down, carving a deep gouge of earth between them, the mountain of dirt pushing him, but then the fingers spread, sifting out the dirt until only he remained, in the Armored's hand. Jean wanted to fight, to live, but those enormous fingers wrapped around him, and his arms were pinned, and his next to worthless swords immobile.

"Jean, it's alright! He won't hurt you!" a gentle, calming voice assured him, the voice rising and falling oddly.

Jean's eyes widened in shock, as he snapped his head around and saw Bertolt swoop past, held securely in Reiner's right hand, as both the behemoth's hands pumped as he ran.

"We're going to help Ymir!" Bertolt yelled, as if in explanation, and maybe it was.

_Ymir? She's here, in the City? With Krista? Of course, with Krista. When have those two ever been apart? So they actually __**are **__working with Reiner and Bertolt? Are they really shifters, too? They must be. Am I another hostage, to use against Levi and the others?_

Thankfully it was somehow easier to form coherent thoughts, now that that horrible, inhuman, wailing, screeching, endless scream had been silenced.

Then they were at the battle. It was a scene of complete carnage and chaos. There were steaming, dying, converging and attacking Titans everywhere, with one noticeably missing exception. There was no sign of Yeager Titan, at least not that he could see, and Eren should have been in the thick of this. Then Jean was deposited unceremoniously on a roof, beside Bertolt, who fired a grapple and caught him as he nearly rolled off the edge. Apparently unlike him, Bertolt had expected the abrupt landing.

And then the Armored Titan crashed into the enormous, compact horde of Titans blocking the street, his devastating attack crushing a number of them and sending others flying into the air, as if they were as light as a handful of feathers, and Jean belatedly realized that Yeager Titan must be at the core of them, that he was being eaten.

"Blades, I need new blades!" Jean cried desperately, as he looked frantically for Armin, for any of the others.

To his amazement and confusion, Bertolt pulled two fresh blades out of his own scabbards and handed them to him, before firing a grapple and leaping off the edge of the roof in a blast of gas.

Jean stared in shock at the weapons, and then ejected the useless old blades from his scabbards, and bladed his hilts with the deadly sharp new blades, shaking his head in frustration and confusion. _Reiner saved me from that Titan before, Bertolt kidnapped Sasha, Reiner carried me here, and now Bertolt armed me? Why? Why the hell are they doing all this? Why help us one minute and then attack us the next? Whose side are they on?_

Then to his shock and relief he saw Connie, here, alive, and he ran along the roof towards his friend, eager to keep him that way.

He lost sight of Connie as the Armored Titan grabbed the hand of the ugliest Titan he had ever seen, even if it hadn't been missing huge chunks of flesh from its limbs and torso, yanking it out of the middle of the pile of bodies it had just crushed and trampled.

_It wasn't Yeager? Why were they trying to eat that one? Is it… holy crap, is that another shifter? Is it…? No. No way is that ugly monster either Ymir or Krista._

To Jean's horror, a moment later he saw Connie land on its shoulder, yelling at it, and the hideous, massive head of razor sharp teeth turned to him.

"Connie are you insane? Get out of there! It's going to eat you!" Jean yelled in warning, knowing he was too late.

But, instead of eating Connie, it ran to one of the nearby buildings and grabbed a naked blond haired man off the roof. Jean's eyes widened in shock and confusion. _Reiner! But… but it can't be! Unless… unless Reiner isn't the Armored Titan after all? But Bertolt was with him. Who…?_

And then, in the next moment, it released Reiner unharmed, and he stumbled awkwardly over to Bertolt, who was standing on another roof, staring in wide-eyed disbelief, and then he was embracing Reiner, hugging him and… _Holy shit!_ And kissing him, as if his life depended on it, ignoring the battle all around them. _What they hell is going on?_

0 0 0

Connie breathed a sigh of relief, as Ymir snatched Marcel off the roof, thankful he'd seen him alone and unguarded before he'd gotten hurt. But to his confusion, instead of running with him away from the battle, so he'd be safer, she deposited him onto a nearby roof next to… _Holy fuck! Bertolt!_

Bertolt was staring at Marcel in shock, and then Marcel said something too softly for Connie to hear and tears started streaming down Bertolt's face, and he hugged and kissed him frantically.

Connie's eyes snapped to the Armored Titan, expected him to turn on them, now that he'd freed Ymir Titan, and she was healing from her many injuries, but instead, his eyes were riveted on Bertolt and Marcel.

Then they broke the kiss, and Marcel called out in a voice eerily identical to Reiner's in tone, in spite of how he was sobbing openly. "White Knight, this is… all my fault! We have to… help Banshee save them!" he begged between sobs.

Bertolt looked frantic, trying to console Marcel, even as the Armored Titan gave a nod and then he turned on the next wave of Titans that was heading for them. Connie scanned the rooftops to see who else was still alive and his eyes widened in shock when he saw Jean staring at Marcel and Bertolt in a daze. _Jean's alive!_

Connie headed for him, worried at how he was just standing there, swords in hand but down at his sides. "Jean! Are you injured?" he yelled as he landed by him.

Jean's head snapped around. "Connie! Thank God! When I saw you land on that Titan I thought… You could have died, you idiot! Who…?"

"That's Ymir. She's on our side. She and Krista saved me from the Titan dogs and got me back here safely. Did you come with Reiner and Bertolt? I thought they were just coming to save Ymir Titan. Jesus, her screams could wake the dead, and I swear, it's her fault I pissed myself. Holy shit! So it wasn't just me. She made you pee yourself too, huh?" He'd been humiliated when it had happened, but that scream had just torn right through him. It had been hard enough to keep fighting, hearing that cry – he'd just wanted to curl up into a ball, with his hands clamped over his ears.

Jean frowned and then his eyes widened in shock. "Oh my God! **That **was why I…? You're right! It was that scream. That was when I… never mind. At least she's not doing that now. Where are the others? I haven't seen anyone else. Where's Yeager Titan and Armin and…"

Connie winced. _How the hell am I supposed to tell him? How am I supposed to tell him Eren went nuts and ate Mikasa and took Armin?_

"No… No, they can't be," Jean yelled, grabbing him by the arms and shaking him, obviously knowing from his expression something terrible had happened.

Connie exhaled heavily. "Eren went crazy. A Titan bit Mikasa's arm off, she was dying, and then another one bit him, and he shifted in its mouth, he blew it's head apart, and then… Yeager Titan ate Mikasa. He just closed his mouth over her, and swallowed her, and… and he grabbed Armin and ran off with him."

"No. No. No, he…" Jean was shaking his head, eyes wide with horror.

"Hange got eaten by a Titan first, saving Commander Erwin. Levi ran off after it, but it got away and then after Mikasa was… Levi ran off after Yeager Titan. He just left the rest of us here, even Erwin. I think… he's trying to save Armin, and he's… he's probably going to kill Eren, now that… Levi promised Eren, if he ever became a monster, if he ever killed any of us…Look, can you fight?" Connie demanded.

The battle was still continuing around them, Reiner and Ymir facing off against an entire army of Titans. Connie's eyes widened as he saw two men attack a Titan together, the way he and Sasha fought as a team, one going high and one going low, except one man had swords where his arms should have been. "Kearney and O'Seanessey! They're still alive!"

He turned back to Jean, but he was still stunned, dazed. Connie grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Come on, Jean! You have to forget about Armin for now, like I'm not letting my fear for Sasha keep me from fighting. Getting yourself or the rest of us killed isn't going to help Armin," he snapped.

To his relief, his words, or maybe just shaking him, seemed to work. Jean blinked a few times, and then his eyes cleared and focused on him.

"Right. You're right. We can't let anyone else die," Jean said. "I'm out of gas, but Bertolt gave me two new blades. Do you know where any of the packs with the spare canisters are?"

"Yeager's basement. I'll take you down there. I'm probably almost out too, and I'm sure a bunch of the others are. We'll make a gas and blade run, we brought a few extra scabbards with us, too," Connie said firmly, relieved to have a plan. He pulled Jean to the edge of the roof. "Hold on!" he yelled.

Jean grabbled him around the chest, and Connie fired his grapples and opened his gas valves wide, to account for the extra mass. Normally he was always one of the last to run empty, since he was so small, compared to Jean and most of the others, but this battle was as bad as the ambush their last mission.

Connie was relieved when he landed in the street to see that Yeager's house was still standing. His eyes widened when he saw Anders emerge from the basement staircase, carrying two packs. He ran over to him.

"Did the Commander send you down here to help me? He left after helping me move the two crates to a safer location and ordered me to move our supplies. Don't bother going back in. These are the last of our packs," Anders reported.

"No, we were just going to get more gas canisters and blades," Connie explained.

"I don't think there are any in these two packs. Come with me. I'll show you where the stash is. The more of us who know, the better, in case the Commander and I don't make it out of here alive. I'd hate to have the rest of you searching the City for it," Anders said grimly.

"Right. Did you already refuel? If so, Jean will carry those, so you and I can fight unencumbered," Connie suggested.

"I haven't replenished or replaced my tank, but I'm not quite empty yet," Anders said, as he handed off the two packs to Jean and readied his swords for trouble.

Connie and Jean followed the man down the block, and then across two others, away from the raging battle. Anders led them to what had once been a general store. "There's provisions here too, canned goods and preserves, plus nuts and beans which the rats haven't eaten which might still be edible. I haven't had the time to check too closely yet," he said, as he set the two packs down beside a small mountain of packs and the two precious crates, the contents of Yeager's basement they'd packed for travel, plus their supplies.

They began opening the packs, pulling out canisters and scabbards and handing them to one another. Connie grabbed a replacement canteen too, and handed one to each of them.

"Do you know who else is still alive? I hadn't seen anyone but the Commander, until I saw you," Anders stated.

"We saw O'Seanessey and Kearney still fighting, just before we found you. At least they and the Commander are still alive," Connie said.

"Last I saw he was, anyway. Though from the look in his eyes, I don't think he had a wish to be. I think he blames himself for Hange's death and Ackerman's, for Yeager turning against us, and Levi running off to kill Yeager and rescue Arlert. Have either of you seen Bauer?" Anders asked, more fear than hope in his voice.

"No. Sorry. But that doesn't mean he's not alive. I was still blocks away from here, before the Armored unexpectedly grabbed me and gave me a ride the rest of the way. The entire City is infested, though most of them were at the Depot, after a while, and now here. I had to fight and hide and run the whole way here. I'm sure Bauer is too, that he just hasn't made it back," Jean assured him.

"Maybe. But thanks for saying that. For a while there, I gave up," Anders said, sounding ashamed. "I couldn't even move to fight. I kept picturing the four of us at the end of our last mission, abandoned and heading back to Karanese on foot, wondering if I'd end up mindless like poor Mitchell, or just be eaten. At least I wasn't the only one to lose control of my bladder," he said grimly.

Jean's eyes widened. "So Connie was right! The way you felt… like you were giving up and were going to die… that crippling fear… when did it start? And when did it stop? Was it… that screaming, for me, it was when I first heard the screaming. I… I wet myself and froze, I was barely able to run into a building before I just curled up into a ball shaking and started remembering… I wanted to… Was it the screaming?" Jean asked, his voice filled with both hope and fear.

Anders looked shocked, and relieved. "The screaming? You mean that was it? I didn't lose my nerve? I'd been fighting before that fine, I was scared, but it wasn't debilitating, not until that godforsaken, soul chilling screeching. That's what made me give up? Thank God."

"So that's Ymir's special power? Like Reiner's armor, and Annie's crystal? With her it's looking ugly and screaming you mindless?" Connie questioned. Even though he was the one to initially propose that to Jean, he hadn't been a hundred percent sure.

"Maybe that's why she suddenly stopped? I mean, she was being eaten, she should have kept screaming, unless they ate her vocal cords or something, but she stopped. Maybe she didn't know it affected humans like that, or forgot it did, and then realized? Maybe Krista told her?" Jean asked.

"It doesn't matter. We need to go back, now that we're resupplied, and this stuff is safer here," Connie urged.

"Yeah. Right. OK. I think I can do that, now that I know why I wanted to… I wasn't forgetting my promise," Jean said softly.

_Shit. Fuck. Did Jean try to kill himself again?_ At least he didn't look injured, other than from what had happened in the tunnel.

"Come on," Connie said, grabbing Jean by his uninjured arm and pulling. Jean and Anders followed him out into the street. They jogged back to the battle site and were shocked at what they saw. Eren's house was gone, along with half the block. The Commander had Anders move everything just in time.

Then there was a tremendous flash of light and crack of thunder, and suddenly the Colossal Titan was towering above them. They instinctively dove for cover and then watched in awe as it bent over, snatched up a handful of Titans, and hurled them over the Wall, like a human child throwing dolls. It bent down, again and again, throwing more and more Titans out of the City until there were none left in front of it, and then it turned away and with an enormous, lumbering stride, headed for the Inner Gate, surprisingly keeping to the street, instead of trampling buildings underfoot. Then there were tremendous booming sounds coming from the Inner Gate as a cloud of powdered rock rose into the air. And then the Colossal vanished, as if it had never been, even as the ground began shaking.

"The Armored, he's running," Jean said, drawing Connie's attention away from the Inner Gate. First he ran to where the Colossal had disappeared, and then, he ran across the City, towards the Outer Gate. Then there was a series of distant booms, and another cloud of dust.

"Holy shit. I think they're trying to keep more Titans from coming in. I think Reiner and Bertolt just sealed the breaches in Wall Maria, the two destroyed Gates. The two of them just retook Shiganshina!" Jean announced, in shock.

"No fucking way," Connie denied. "Did they really…?" Because now that Jean said it, that was the most logical explanation for what they'd just witnessed.

"So what, does that mean they're on our side for good, now? Or are they just trying to trap us here, so we can't get back with what we found? Once our gas is gone, unless we get more at the Depot, there's no way we can get over those Walls, without them spotting and stopping us. The staircases only go down the inner sides of the Walls. We need our grapples and gas to make it down the other way," Jean said.

"I can lead us out of here. There's another hidden Gate, inside Shiganshina, Tau Gate, that I know the location of. I've never used it , so I didn't know where any of the other Gates that it leads to were, and from what Captain Levi told me earlier, Tau's been caved in. But we still have the dynamite. There's no way there's enough to blast through the Wall, but it might be enough to unblock that entrance and get us back into the tunnel," Anders said.

"We need to find the Commander, before Reiner and Bertolt get back," Connie agreed.

"What about Ymir and Krista. Will they just let us leave?" Jean asked dubiously.

"And that other shifter, Marcel, the one they revived," Anders stated.

"Marcel? Who's Marcel?" Jean asked, puzzled.

"Reiner's nephew and Bertolt's husband. The guy you were staring at, the one kissing Bertolt before," Connie explained.

"His **husband**? Bertolt's **married** to a… That wasn't Reiner? That's been driving me nuts!" Jean exclaimed.

"Thank goodness you're all alive!" Krista's voice cried unexpectedly from overhead. "The Commander and those two new Scouts need help, until Reiner and Bertolt get back! Hurry!"

Without another word they jetted up and after Krista. For now, at least, it looked like she was on their side.


	38. Chapter 38 - Rationale and Regrouping

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Finnish translation:**

_**kultaseni **_**= sweetheart**

_**pikkuveli**_** = baby brother**

Chapter 38 – Rationale and Regrouping

Jean fought to stand, but he was literally too exhausted to move, and he wasn't the only one. If it wasn't for the Titan shifters, they'd all be dead.

He watched, numbly, as the Armored Titan punched the back of the neck out of the last Titan left standing, and then looked around for another opponent, seeming puzzled when he didn't find one.

"I think that's the last one," Krista called out.

Ymir Titan vanished in a cloud of steam and a moment later Ymir used her maneuver gear to jet up to the rooftop Krista was standing on. She apparently didn't need anyone to cut her out of her Titan form. "We need to be sure. Now that Reiner and Bertolt sealed the Gates, we'll be safe here, but not if there are Titans lurking around that we don't know about. We need to search the City."

_Holy shit. Ymir remembers what happens when she's in Titan form! She just responded to what Krista said before she shifted back, and she remembered them sealing the Gates. Is it only her, or does that mean Reiner and Bertolt actually remember destroying the Wall, killing all those people?_

"I'll do it," Marcel piped up unexpectedly.

"No," Ymir and Bertolt refused simultaneously.

"I'm the only one who can. Bertie hasn't recovered from his shift long enough to move yet, and you and Reiner are nearly as done in as the rest of them. Even if there are one or two Titans left, they'll never be able to catch me, you know that," Marcel insisted.

"I'm not letting you leave my sight," Bertolt insisted, the look of growing panic on his face painful to see.

"I have to, Bertie. I haven't done anything to help so far, but I feel strong enough to shift now, and everything's my fault," Marcel argued quietly.

Jean hadn't even seen Reiner shift back, but suddenly he was striding in human form across the roof towards Marcel, who stiffened bravely. But Reiner embraced him, smothering him in a bear hug. "You stupid kid, scaring us like that. We thought you were **dead**," he accused.

"I'm sorry," Marcel whispered, and then Reiner's shoulders were shaking, and Jean realized he was crying, that Reiner Braun, a Titan shifter and the toughest of all of them in the 104th, was crying.

Marcel patted him awkwardly on the back, and started shaking too, and Jean realized he was sobbing. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, for everything. It was my fault, it was all my fault," he apologized, over and over.

Bertolt stood then, shaking and swaying, he staggered over to them and embraced them both.

"It's not your fault. You didn't ask to be captured, to be used and nearly exsanguinated by that bastard doctor," Ymir said angrily, glaring at the rest of them, as if they were responsible.

"Ymir, it's not their fault, what Dr. Yeager did," Krista soothed.

Then Marcel pushed away from them, wiping the tears from his face. "I couldn't believe it, when I realized this was Shiganshina. I… Do you know if they survived? The Yeagers? Grisha and Carla? I saw Mikasa and Eren earlier, I know they… Wait. Where are they? Eren and Mikasa?" he asked belatedly, his brow creased in concern, and Jean and the others winced and cringed.

"Who the fuck cares? Why the hell should you, after what Yeager did to you?" Reiner demanded angrily.

"How can you say that? If it wasn't for Grisha, I… only it didn't work, did it? We were too late. Everyone shifted, didn't they, and the Garrison didn't understand and they destroyed the City, trying to destroy them? Please tell me we at least quarantined the City in time, that none of the rest who were infected got out to spread it? No, you were sealing both Gates. Oh God. They got out, didn't they? They breached the Gates," he said, horrified.

"Marcel, _kultaseni_, what are you talking about? It sounds like at first you might have been working voluntarily with Dr. Yeager, but you're confused, honey. There was a plague, but it wasn't the Cronos Virus. Yeager somehow found out you were a shifter, that your blood might be a cure, he imprisoned you, he apparently bled you dry. None of that's your fault, sweetie," Ymir soothed.

"Damn it, Ymir, stop talking to me like I'm some kind of child! I know what I did! The rest of you have no idea what happened, or you wouldn't be looking at me like that. You'd hate me. **I **hate me. Look at this City! How many thousands died, because of me?" Marcel cried, his voice full of anguish.

"It's not your fault, Marcel. When you disappeared, we didn't believe you, of all of us, could be caught, imprisoned. We were sure you were dead. That's why, when Annie issued the order, we didn't refuse it. We thought they'd attacked us, killed a fifth of the shifters. So we retaliated. We breached Wall Maria and a third of humanity died," Bertolt admitted solemnly, looking mournful, ashamed.

Marcel's eyes widened, and he shook his head, horrifed. "No. No, you couldn't have. Please tell me you didn't... **You** did this? You're the ones who destroyed Shiganshina, not...? And if both Gates were gone, not just here but... Oh God. Oh my God. I killed them. I turned you into murderers, and I killed them." He collapsed onto the roof,fisting his hair, shaking his head in horror.

Bertolt and Reiner were immediatly at his side. "Marcel, it's not your fault. It was Yeager's for imprisoning you and experimenting on you. It was our mistake for following Annie's order. It wasn't yours. You were the only one of us who's innocent, you and Ymir. You are the victim," Reiner reasoned.

"Oh God. You really don't know. You don't understand. I didn't at first, either, not until it was almost too late. I went over the Wall easily, infiltrated into the City, just like we planned. I... it was surrreal. So many people, walking, talking, laughing. Being in a city again, after it just being the five of us and the dogs, for over a century. It was too much at first, the voices, the faces. I found an inn, the Foaming Stein, rented a room using the silver you gave me, and just hid there, for the first few days, slowly reacclimating myself, first to the innkeeper's family, and then to the patrons.

"It struck so suddenly. One minute, everyone was healthy, just quiet little coughs, here and there, and the next, overnight, they were all sick, burning with fever. I was the only one who wasn't ill. They could barely move or speak, they were delirious, the innkeeper and his wife, their daughters the barmaids, the guests, everyone. There was no way for me to tend to them all. So I went looking for a doctor. The people I spoke to directed me to Dr. Yeager's house. They said he was the best doctor in the City.

"His wife, Carla, was the one who answered the door. When I explained she was so concerned. She said her husband, Grisha, was out, that there was a new, very virulent illness that had struck the south side of the City, it sounded just like what I'd seen. People were afflicted with a high fever, they could barely speak or move, it left them completely helpless, but so far it had been just a few cases, here and there, a butcher and his family, a baker and his wife, a cheesemaker. And others' whom her husband thought might have been their customers. She wondered whether that's how the inn got it, and she was worried her husband might get sick too, in spite of the precautions he was taking. She said he wore gloves and a special mask, that he was careful to wash his hands. She invited me in to wait, and fed me lunch.

"When Grisha came home, the look on his face, as he stood in the doorway… Carla ran to him, to hug him, but he told her to stay away, that he was afraid he might be contagious, his clothes, his breath. Eighteen of his twenty patients were dead, and the other two didn't look like they'd last the night. And there were over four dozen new cases, all on the south side of the city, but he was afraid there might be a number of others he hadn't heard of, that at the rate it was spreading, the whole City could become infected. He said he'd spoken with the Mayor, trying to get him to quarantine the City, but the man instead looked like he planned to flee.

"So Grisha went to the Garrison, and tried to get them to seal the Inner Gate, to contain it, but they'd just laughed at him and sent him on his way. But this Garrison soldier, named Hannes, had overheard, he called him over, asked him some questions, and then brought him to his Commander. Thankfully, the Commander listened. He declared Martial Law, and ordered the Gate sealed, and sent messenger birds to the Garrison bases in Chlorba, Trost, Karanese, Yalkell, Hermina and Stohess, advising them of the situation, and what he'd done.

"'What about Eren and Mikasa?'Carla asked, and the look Grisha gave her was so lost and afraid.

"'They have to stay here. I can't risk the lives of every child inside the Walls, just to try to save my own,' he said.

"That was when I knew I could trust him with my secret. That's when I knew what I had to do. Because I'd realized **it was my fault**. It wasn't just a coincidence that everyone in the inn was sick, and all the businesses that supported it. That's when I realized **I** must be the carrier," Marcel said sepulchrally.

Jean's eyes widened in shock, and he saw everyone else's, including Marcel's friends and family do the same. No one had realized that was what he meant, when he said it was his fault.

"Remember, these people were sealed behind the Wall to keep them safe from the Titan Plague, the Cronos Virus. And you know we all run far hotter than normal humans. A high fever was never part of the early symptoms after injection for us, but this a virus that mutates at an alarming rate, that's turned completely unpredictable. I realized I could be some sort of human carrier, a Typhoid Mary, feeling fine but spreading disease and death wherever I went. So I told Dr. Yeager the truth, who and what I was, and that my blood might hold the cure. We went back to the inn but… but everyone there was dead. Everyone. Then I went home with him, and we went down into his basement laboratory, and I let him run tests on me, comparing my blood samples to those he'd taken of the infected people. And I was right.

"Carla tried to come in that night, to bring us dinner, but we couldn't risk it, we wouldn't let her in; it was bad enough she'd already spent so much time with me, before Grisha came home. She told us she'd sent over six dozen people away who'd been looking for him, that the disease was spreading like wildfire. People were panicking, demanding to be let out of the City. They'd discovered the Inner Gate was sealed, but the military assured them they were working on a cure. Mr. Hannes had come by, but she'd told him Grisha couldn't be disturbed, that he was running delicate experiments.

"We spent the next day isolating the virus, the antibodies in my blood, trying to develop a cure. That's when Carla started pounding on the door. We tried to send her away, but she yelled that Eren and Mikasa were both sick, they had high fevers, and she was afraid they'd caught it, that Mr. Hannes from the Garrison had carried them both home. And Hannes was starting to show symptoms too.

"The look on Grisha's face… We didn't have a cure yet, we were kilometers away from developing one, but he opened the door for his wife. And that's when we saw Carla was sick too. There was a look of relief on her face, and then she just collapsed into Grisha's arms. He carried her upstairs, to the house, and we found the children, completely delirious. We knew from the other cases that they'd be dead within 48 hours, unless we finished the cure in time.

"There wasn't time. Grisha knew it wasn't ready, when he injected Eren. He was hoping that by injecting the unrefined cure into Eren, he might survive, and we could study his antibodies, and use a combination of our cells to cure everyone else.

"I told Grisha to go ahead, to drain me dry if he had to, but just save everyone. But first, I had him let me write a letter, to explain everything to you all, so you'd understand, so when you came looking for me, you'd hear what happened, and not blame Grisha or the others. And then… that's all I remember. The next thing I knew, Ymir was standing over me, asking me if I was awake and aware, if I could hear and understand her, and telling me I was safe and free."

"God forgive us," Ymir said piously.

"Tch. God fucking abandoned all of us a long time ago, Ymir," Reiner said bitterly. "Besides, it's not like you took part in what we did. You refused, remember? You insisted there might be a valid reason communications stopped, that Marcel disappeared. You told us he could be prisoner somewhere, that you refused to believe he was dead."

Reiner turned to Marcel. "You infiltrated Shiganshina on Annie's orders, and we were all in agreement that we needed to act. The rest of us are all equally responsible for what happened."

Reiner spun to face Erwin. "So now that you know, Commander Erwin, what's your next move? You want to collect a pound of flesh from each of us? Chop us to pieces? Truss us up and send us to the King with neat little bows around our necks?" Reiner challenged.

"A few of you mentioned a Pact that you'd thought we'd broken. Is there someone within the Walls who is actually aware of the terms and stipulations of that Pact?" Erwin countered.

"Yeah. The King, and his minions. The deal was they maintain communications with the other Sanctuaries, we protect this Sanctuary from the Titans, thin the Titan horde as much as we could, make sure the Walls stayed intact, and in turn, they were supposed to be working on a way to eradicate the Titans wholesale, so they could eventually open the Gates. But from what I've seen these past five years, since we infiltrated, the King doesn't give a rat's ass about anything except protecting his petty little position of power. When we gave that fucker an ultimatum, to find Marcel or we'd take down Wall Rose too, and he failed to produce him, we attacked Trost, just like we warned him we would.

"But then, Eren changed into a Titan, and suddenly, all bets were off. We realized the King might not know where Marcel was, but someone did. Eren did. That's when we decided to capture him, as Titans, so you wouldn't know it was us, so we could interrogate him, without the rest of you interfering. But instead of us catching Eren, you caught Annie, though that didn't work out too well for you.

"After that… Annie hadn't been exactly sane, since Marcel disappeared, but she hadn't been totally… No, she was. We never should have followed her order to attack Wall Maria, but Bertie and I honestly were in so much pain at that point, we didn't give a fuck. No, that's not true. We **wanted** everyone else to hurt just as bad as we did," Reiner admitted.

"So it looks like all of us get to burn in hell for what we've done. Except Marcel. He might have unintentionally started the plague, but he tried to give his life to end it. I don't care what you do to me, but you're letting Bertie and Marcel walk out of here. You need a scapegoat, you've got one," Reiner said fiercely.

"No! You're not sacrificing yourself for us!" Marcel denied, springing to his side.

"That's what big brothers do, Marcie. Now be a good little girl and run off to your husband," Reiner taunted. "The two of you deserve to be happy," he added, sincerity replacing the acid in his voice.

"No! You're not dying for us! How can you possibly think we'd ever be happy, knowing that? After what we've all done, none of us deserves happiness, but neither does mankind. They're just as guilty as we are. But if we're all dead, there won't be anyone left to fix our mistakes. Stop talking about dying. There's been more than enough death," Marcel implored.

"Tch. Baby brothers, thinking they have all the answers. You're one lucky guy, Bertie," Reiner acknowledged. Then he turned to Erwin. "Sorry, Commander. Guess you don't get to string me up by my thumbs after all. So what now?"

"Now you come with us. You help us free Blouse, assuming she's still alive, we try to find Bauer on the way, and then we go after Levi, Yeager, and Arlert, and bring back what we found in the basement. You help us analyze it, and then we decide together how best to proceed, including the best course of action to take with Leonhart," Erwin said emotionlessly.

"Yeah, Sasha's still alive. What do you think we are, monsters?" Reiner prodded.

"You tortured Randall to death. If you've hurt Sasha, I'll kill you," Connie snarled.

"What?" Marcel asked, shocked.

"Shit. Who'd have thought that of all the soldiers I've killed over the years, all the interrogations in the field during the War, he's the one who'd haunt me? Looks like maybe Annie and I are going to have to pay the piper after all. But I didn't lay a hand on Sasha. Bertie had to knock her out and I scared the crap out of her, to keep her in line, but Jesus, Connie, do you really think I go around hurting little girls? For fuck's sake, my codename is White Knight. I'm a freaking paladin, I always have been. Just ask anyone," Reiner claimed.

"What about those Titan dogs. What if…?" Connie challenged.

"What, you think they go around eating people? Christ kid, first rule is, you're a shifter, you eat a human, we kill you. Doesn't matter if you're a dog or a human. Hans and Otto never ate anyone in their lives," Reiner defended.

"They sure as fuck looked like they wanted to eat me," Connie argued.

"Well yeah, they're scary looking fuckers. That's what attack dogs do: they attack, bite if they have to, subdue and hold, until we swoop in and capture whoever they catch. They would have bashed you up a bit, probably broken a few bones, maybe chewed on you a little, maybe even bitten off a piece here or there, but they wouldn't have eaten you," Reiner argued.

"Reiner, you're not helping. Really, Connie, they're well trained. They wouldn't have injured you too badly," Bertolt assured him.

"Good. Then we gather up the crates and our supplies, find Bauer and rescue Blouse, and then go after Levi, Yeager and Arlert," Erwin reiterated.

"First I need to search the City for remaining Titans. The last thing we need is to be ambushed," Marcel argued.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Bertolt asked solicitously.

"I'll be fine," Marcel assured him, with a quick kiss. Then, instead of diving off the roof like Ymir, Marcel climbed carefully down to the street.

"Bring back some clothes, too, OK? I don't like everyone seeing you naked," Bertolt complained, loud enough for Jean and the others to hear.

Marcel smiled, his whole face lighting up. "Sure," he said. Then there was a flash, and a Titan stood in his place. He reminded Jean of a picture he'd seen of an ancient statue, Michelangelo's David, except made of bronze. Every muscle and limb was in perfect proportion, thankfully covered in skin, and by an odd yellow sheen, as if his body was coated in warm honey. He crouched down, as if a runner taking position, and then suddenly he was off, skating down the street as if it was made of ice, the speed and agility with which he was moving incredible.

"God, he's beautiful. I never thought I'd see that again," Ymir said reverently.

Jean watched, stunned, as he crisscrossed the City back and forth, up and down the streets at remarkable speed, occasionally jumping over obstacles. "How does…?" Jean asked.

"That golden substance his skin excretes is a type of oil. It coats him everywhere, even the soles of his feet, but he can selectively stop it, so he can create friction to kick off and gain speed or turn, but then become nearly frictionless. We call him Quicksilver, because it's like watching mercury slide down a tabletop, and catching him is next to impossible. He can slip out of any Titan's grasp," she boasted as proudly as if he was her son.

As if to prove the point, when a hidden Titan tried to tackle him, Ymir, Reiner and Bertolt tensed, but in the next instant, Quicksilver Titan had already taken it down, as evidenced by the rapidly growing cloud of steam left in his wake.

Quicksilver Titan searched the whole City, stopping at the Depot, where apparently, Hans and Otto recognized his scent, from the tumult of barking.

"Well that probably scared the crap out of Sasha," Connie complained.

Then Quicksilver Titan vanished.

"What the hell?" Reiner demanded anxiously.

"Relax, Reiner. Knowing Sasha and Marcel, Sasha probably called out to him, he heard her, reassured her, and is telling her that her friends are all safe, and he'll bring her to them, if she promises not to attack him, the dogs, and us," Ymir assured him, though she was watching intently.

A few anxious minutes later, in a chartreuse flash of light, Quicksilver Titan reappeared. He bent down for a moment and then continued his search.

When he returned to them a short while later, after finishing covering the entire City, both his hands were closed into fists.

He crouched down and opened his left hand onto the street. Two standard sized normal looking German shepherds bounded out of his left hand, then stood at attention, gazes riveted on Reiner, Bertolt and Ymir. The three of them quickly climbed down to join Marcel's Titan form and the dogs. There was a sharp whistle, and the two dogs bounded eagerly over to Ymir, even as Quicksilver Titan's right hand opened, revealing Sasha, curled into a ball, hugging a large gas canister, beside two large backpacks.

"Sasha!" Connie and Jean cried in relief, using grapples and gas to swing down off the roof, and then running over to her.

Erwin, Kearney and O'Seanessey joined them.

"Connie! Jean! Thank God! I've been going crazy, worrying!" she said, laying down the canister so she could hug Connie instead.

Quicksilver Titan disappeared in a burst of steam, leaving Marcel standing in its wake, just as Ymir had transformed, a much faster and cleaner method of returning to human size than Eren had ever shown, and without needing to be cut free.

Jean felt his stomach lurch. _Eren. Shit. Even if we still wanted to let him live, they said they kill any Titan who eats humans._ Belatedly, he realized Marcel was now wearing a Survey Corps uniform, though not maneuver gear or scabbards.

"I couldn't leave Hans and Otto there after they recognized me, and then I heard Scout Blouse calling out, anxious to be freed," Marcel explained. "I found your pack, Reiner, and dressed in your spare clothes, along with some Garrison boots I scavenged, and then I followed her voice."

He scowled at Reiner, accusingly. "She thought I was you at first, when I approached, and for some reason that terrified her. She started screaming for Bertolt, as if she thought he'd protect her, although she looked quite fierce too, as if she was ready to take me on, on her own, even bound so securely, and I suspected she might be able to inflict a considerable amount of damage.

"Once I calmed her down, assured her of my benign intentions and explained who I was, she allowed me to get near enough to free her. She insisted on bringing the canister with her, and once she explained what it was and why it was so important, I figured that in addition to being a gesture of goodwill, it made sense and would save us a trip, unless there's anything else you needed from the Depot. I brought both packs, so unless there was something else hidden in that building, we shouldn't need to go back there."

"No, you did good, kid," Reiner agreed, not answering any of Marcel's unasked questions, the same ones Jean was having.

_Just what the hell did Reiner do to Sasha to make her so afraid of him, but not Bertolt, when he was the one who hit her?_

"I'm sorry I kidnapped you. We were desperate," Bertolt apologized to Sasha, looking at her guiltily.

"And I'm sorry I scared you. I wouldn't really have hurt you like that, Sasha. I was just trying to intimidate you so you'd cooperate and wouldn't cause trouble," Reiner apologized, sounding sincere and even a little sheepish.

"Like what? What did he say he was going to do to you?" Connie demanded, glaring at Reiner.

"Nothing important. And he and Bertolt didn't hurt me," Sasha quickly assured Connie, standing between him and Reiner, obviously trying to keep the peace.

"Now that we have you back safely, Blouse, it's time to go after the others. Springer and Kirstein can fill you in on everything you've missed," Erwin stated.

Sasha was shocked and devastated, when she heard both Hange and Mikasa were dead, that Yeager Titan had taken Armin, after killing Mikasa, and Levi had gone AWOL after the two of them, in the middle of the battle.

Kearney and O'Seanessey were dismayed, when they saw Yeager's house, until they learned everything had been moved to safety.

They retrieved everything from the store where it was hidden, adding some preserved food to their supplies for the return journey, especially since they were going to attempt to retrieve the others, and there was no telling how far they'd need to travel.

Then they set out, Hans and Otto both tracking Bauer from the scent on the spare clothes they dug out of his pack. Once they found him, or whatever pieces of him might be left, they'd head to the Inner Gate, with the dogs tracking Levi's and Eren's scents instead. Jean dreaded what they'd find.


	39. Chapter 39 - Broken

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
****CAUTION – Memory of attempted rape in the distant past and brief suicidal thoughts.  
**

****Chapter 39 – Broken

Levi pressed onwards grimly, not knowing what was worse: hearing the distant roars and screams and crashes of battle before, or the more ominous silence now. He tried to tell himself that he was just out of range, too far away to hear, but he was afraid that the more harsh reality might be that there wasn't anyone left alive to fight. Except maybe Sasha. Until Reiner and Bertolt tortured her to death, like Randall.

He hesitated, tender, tortured lungs heaving, fighting to catch his breath, knowing he was pushing himself too hard, looking back at the distant Wall that was barely visible through the trees of the mountain path, and then focused purposefully ahead. _Armin. I have to rescue Armin first, and keep my promise to Eren. Then Armin and I will rescue you, Sasha. I promise._

Levi would have welcomed the throbbing pain in his abused leg, if it didn't threaten to slow him down, in spite of the brace. He deserved to be in pain. But without the brace, he likely wouldn't be able to walk at all. The climb up the trail was a lot more taxing on his still healing thigh muscles than the walk down, and he'd been wheeled along in a cart for most of that trip.

Memories flooded him, of the brats first becoming his friends, Armin's eager, cherubic face as he told him he was going to sponge bathe him, the flustered looks, the blushes, the shy flirting, the brave challenges. The look of white-faced terror as he was carried off by Eren, after Eren ate…

Levi stumbled, nearly falling, as images of Mikasa replaced those of Armin in his mind's eye: protective, serious, maternal, nursing, healing, chiding, teasing, and finally even smiling. Mikasa smiling, at him. Teasing him. Dead. Like Hange. Like Petra. Like Isabel. Like his mother. Every woman who had ever loved him was dead. And almost every man: Furlan, Günther, Eld and Oluo. _Erwin?_

He looked back again, but now he couldn't even see the Wall at all, through the obscuring branches. He turned back to the trail. Even without the deep gouges of footprints to follow he would have known this was where Eren was taking Armin, to Mikasa's house, a place Eren somehow thought of as home.

Levi tripped and fell, cursing as he began rolling back down the trail, just as he had with the brats, when his crutch got caught in that animal burrow, but fortunately not as helpless to protect his head or slow his fall this time, as he jerked to a halt.

He lay panting for breath, forcing himself to lie still and assess himself for damage, his lungs hurting as badly as his leg. When he was relatively sure it was safe to try, he stood warily. _Thank fuck. Nothing broken or twisted. _He couldn't afford to be crippled again, not here, not now. He started forward again, wincing at the throbbing pain in his thigh from the old injury as he continued up the incline, his right arm wrapped around his ribs, as if it might somehow make breathing easier.

_You abandoned your Commander. You went AWOL, in the middle of a battle. Everyone who died after that is your fault, your responsibility. You killed your entire Squad, again. You know they always die when you leave them, Levi, _Kenny's merciless, oily voice chided in his head.

"Shut the fuck up, you bastard!" Levi snarled back, fighting to keep from turning, and running back. It was too late now. He'd made his choice. They might all be dead, now, his fault, but he could still save Armin.

_He's probably already been eaten. You let your cousin die. You should have killed Yeager when you had the chance. Now Mikasa is dead, because you were too soft to kill that monster._

"She's not my cousin, because you're not my father! Now shut the fuck up or I'll kill you, you bastard," Levi threatened helplessly.

_Tch. You've tried before, remember? You're weak, Levi. Your friends are what make you weak. Didn't I tell you? There's you and me, and then there's the rest of the world. Without me, you'd have been dead long ago. I tried to beat that pathetic need to be loved out of you, but sadly, even I couldn't undo seven years of your mother's indulgence. If only I'd gotten my hands on you sooner. Your need to be loved is your greatest weakness. And the most laughable thing about it is, you don't even know __**who**__ you love._

_I thought Erwin was the one you loved. But you left him behind without a second glance. So tell me, Levi, is Armin the one you really love? It's a pity you saved that boy Jean then, isn't it? Oh, but that's right. You didn't just leave Erwin behind. You left Jean behind to die too, didn't you? How opportunistic of you. Or perhaps you're starting to understand after all. _

_Do you have the balls to kill a love rival, knowing the risk? Do you think Armin will greet you with open arms, begging you to console him, in place of the lover he lost, the one you oh so conveniently just killed, so you could have him? No, Levi. Armin's going to hate you, for letting Jean die. _

_They all hate you, Levi. Everyone you've ever failed and killed, and everyone they left behind. Remember Petra's father? Telling you how Petra was too young to marry yet, when she was already dead. You didn't even bring her body back for her father to bury, did you? Do you think you'll be bringing Armin's body back? No, Levi. Armin and Mikasa are both broken, bloody little bits in Eren's stomach now. Armin's already dead. The only thing left for you to do now is kill Eren, in revenge. Your last surviving friend. _

"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Levi begged, unable to waste his strength on being angry, needing it all for the climb up the mountain, fighting tears of fear, pain, loneliness and frustration. There was no one to drive Kenny's insidious voice out of his head this time. Because they were all dead. And it was his fault. It was always his fault. Every life he ever touched, everyone he ever loved died. They always died.

As if confirming it, there was a bellowing roar from somewhere far up ahead, Yeager Titan, only this time he sounded like he had on base, not angry, but in agony.

Levi ran, Kenny's hated voice and his guilt forgotten, ignoring the pain in his leg and lungs, heading wildly up the trail, in the next moment wondering why. He'd come to kill Eren, hadn't he? To keep the promise he'd made to him, that if he ever killed anyone, he'd make sure he could never hurt anyone else.

_So why run to save him? _Kenny scoffed.

"Because I'm not letting him be devoured, you fucking ass! I'm going to give him a clean kill," Levi swore aloud, needing to hear, in spite of the cost in breath.

He ran until he couldn't run further, the echo of Yeager Titan's cry haunting him, as he slowed to a coughing, gasping, stumbling walk. His whole body was shaking with spent adrenaline, fatigue and pain. What he wouldn't give for some of Mikasa's… _Damn it. She's dead, you ass. Mikasa is dead. But I can still save Armin._

_Liar,_ Kenny whispered gleefully.

Levi didn't have the strength or breath to tell him to shut up. It wouldn't matter. That fucker's voice had been haunting him for years. Only one other voice had ever had the power to fully drive it away, and he'd left Erwin in Shiganshina, to die alongside the rest of his new Squad.

He plunged on, refusing to drown in self-loathing until after he'd rescued Armin and killed Eren. Then… then he might just follow Jean's example, and put a bullet in his brain, because he couldn't do this anymore. He couldn't bear to lose another friend. He couldn't bear to lose the ones he'd already lost.

Levi tensed. Something was coming, too big and loud to be one of the smaller forest animals, but too small to be a Titan, unless it was one of the little ones. _A deer?_ No, not this loud, this clumsy. _Is it a bear? Fuck._ He didn't want to have to kill a bear. He wasn't sure he could. He drew his swords and hid behind a tree, picking out another few solid trunks as secure purchases for his grapples, as he waited, forcing himself to breathe silently by strength of will alone.

_Crunch, thud, thud, crunch, snap, crunch, thud, thud. _

Dead leaves and branches breaking. Loud stumbling footsteps._ What the fuck is that?_

His eyes widened as the mysterious creature cleared the curve in the path, and the blocking branches revealed a blond haired Scout. Levi stared in disbelief. "Armin! Armin, thank…" His exuberant, shocked yell died in his throat, as Armin lurched and stumbled down the path, not stopping or turning at the sound of his voice, not running eagerly towards him, not reacting to his presence at all.

"Armin?" For a terrifying moment, Levi thought he was truly going mad, seeing things, until a Titan attacked, lunging out of the trees, directly at Armin.

Levi screamed in fury and denial and fired his grapples into the fucker, piercing it. It was thankfully a little one, only four meters tall, short and light enough that he was able to yank it down and away from Armin. He ran to it, keeping his hands on the grapple cables and then he chopped its neck as it lay struggling to rise. He released his grapples, quickly attaching the final pair of emergency replacements as he ran for Armin, not having time to let the body steam away, in case there were others coming.

"Armin!" he yelled again, grabbing him by the arm and spinning Armin around to face him.

Armin stared at him unseeingly, eyes vapid and unblinking, all the intelligence and compassion, the bright light of them extinguished. They were dull, tepid blue now, like a muddy lake, empty, lifeless.

"Armin, damn it, say something!" Levi begged, shaking him, running his fingers wildly through his hair, feeling for a lump, a soft spot, some sign of a head injury, a skull fracture or concussion, but there was nothing.

In desperation he slapped him, once, twice, three times. Armin flinched away from the pain, but instinctively, like an animal, not like a thinking man.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Armin," Levi apologized, not for hitting him, but for failing him. He hugged him, not hoping warm arms could do what vicious slaps hadn't, holding him not for Armin's sake, but for his own, as hot tears flowed freely down his face. This was almost worse than finding him dead, or finding only a piece of him, or not finding him at all. Almost.

"It's going to be alright," Levi lied. Nothing could ever be alright again. Eren had eaten Mikasa, and done something so horrific to Armin that he'd lost his mind, he'd broken, like a doll shattered against rock.

For an awful moment Levi pictured his mother, as he'd last seen her, broken and bloody on the cold stone alley floor, as the men pummeled him, grabbed him, tearing at his clothes. She'd died too fast for them to rape her, running into the knife they'd stabbed at him with, so they'd been determined to rape him instead, in their frustrated fury, as he fought with all the power of a spoiled and pampered seven year old bastard prince: no power or skill at all. And then Kenny had come, and he'd traded a quick hell for a long and torturous one.

He was so lost in his memories that the second Titan actually had its mouth wrapped around his leg before he even realized it was there. Only the brace saved him, as crushing jaws were frustrated by a steel cage around tender flesh and crunchy bone.

Levi hacked at it wildly, as if he was a novice, worse than one. His first Titan kill had been quick, clean and efficient. This was something else entirely, a screaming, slashing, nightmare of fury and desperation, as he fought to not only protect himself, but Armin.

No sooner had the second Titan fallen than a third and fourth attacked, both of these not four meters like the first two, but fifteen meters, hideous, towering monsters. In desperation Levi snatched up his already loaded flare gun and fired the green flare in the chamber directly into the face of the closest one, in case the green smoke worked its magic on them, in case they'd been part of the ambush of their previous mission. He could hear both God and Kenny laughing at him for the wild hope, as he dropped the useless gun, snatching up his swords and firing his grapples, trying to lure them away from Armin, as the corpses of the other two Titans steamed around them, making it difficult to see these new foes clearly.

He just finished slashing one in the neck when the second lunged at Armin.

"Get away from him!" Levi screamed as he shot grapples into its eyes and leapt onto its face, intent on blinding it, clambering over its head and swinging behind it from its long, scraggly hair, to attack its neck, hacking and slashing. But this one was far smarter than the usual Titan. It backed into a tree, crushing Levi between knifelike branches and then the rough bark of the trunk and its unrelenting back.

He gasped as a branch impaled his already wounded leg, astonished it could work its way in past the crushed and tangled metal of the brace, but relieved it wasn't his ribs, his lung, not yet, as he felt hot blood flow down his thigh, though any moment now his ribs would begin to snap and his already tortured lungs would pop like an overinflated bladder. He heard a loud sniffing sound, as the Titan turned to claim him, the smell of blood exciting it to a gleeful frenzy. That was its final mistake, as it freed him enough to be able to slash at its neck as it turned.

It fell to the ground, and he fell on top of it, his grapples still imbedded in its eyes, where they'd remain trapped until they steamed free. "Armin?" Levi staggered upright, fighting to draw breath into newly freed and barely healed lungs. Terror engulfed him when he didn't see Armin, as he frantically searched for bright blond hair amidst the green and brown. _There could be dozens of other Titans out here!_

He tried to run and nearly fell, barely catching himself against a tree. "Fucking leg! Not now, damn it!" he yelled in frustration as he pushed away, lurching and swaying back onto the trail.

Levi froze as he saw another fifteen meter Titan crouched down in the center of the trail. This one had skin, and breasts, and less defined muscles than any other Titan he'd ever seen, with a long mop of reddish brown hair and big brown eyes that were staring owlishly at the little blond clutched tightly in her hands.

"Let him go, you bitch!" Levi roared, as he staggered forwards, belatedly reeling in his grapples, cursing as they caught either on tree roots or still imbedded in the Titan's skull, certain she was going to devour Armin before he could save him, that he'd watch him die helplessly, the way he'd watched Furlan and Hange and Mikasa die, too far away to save them.

The Titan's mouth burst into a big, toothy grin. And then, astonishingly, she spoke. "Le-vi! Brat!" she said proudly, as she thrust her hands out towards him, as if she was giving him a present, even as she squinted and then widened her eyes in an almost comical fashion, over and over, as if trying to focus on his face.

_It can't be._ Levi stumbled forwards, releasing the useless grapples, shaking his head in disbelief. "Zoe?" he whispered in shock, in disbelief. "Shitty Glasses? Is that you?" he asked more strongly, as he got nearer.

"Found you!" Hange Titan cried happily, as she let go of Armin with her right hand and held him only in her left, then reached out, and before Levi could react, scooped him into her left hand and then pressed him against her cheek, rubbing him against her face as if snuggling against a cat.

"Put me down, you crazy scientist," Levi complained, even as tears started streaming down his cheeks. "You're not dead. You're not dead. I thought… thank fuck, you're not dead," he whispered reverently, hugging her cheek reflexively before she set him down and Armin down beside him. Armin started to walk away, but Levi grabbed his wrist, and he didn't struggle.

"How did you…?" he started to ask, shaking his head at his stupidity. She may have said a few words, but she couldn't actually answer questions, could she?

"Mouth. Blood," Hange Titan answered, putting the lie to his thoughts, even if her answer was nonsensical.

"Mouth blood?" he asked. _What the fuck is she talking about?_ And then his eyes widened in memory of Hange resuscitating Leonhart, her mouth covered in Leonhart's blood, and his words, "Fuck, Shitty Glasses, you look like a Titan." _Holy fuck. She __**is**__ a Titan._

"Zoe. Hange. Can you change back? Like Eren? I… need you to be small again, human again. Something's wrong with Armin and I fucked up my leg again, I'm bleeding and my lungs are a mess, and I'm going fucking crazy, too. Will you let me cut you out?" he asked, hoping it wouldn't upset her. If she attacked him, he was dead. He didn't have the strength or the spirit to attack Hange, not after watching her get eaten, thinking she was dead, and then seeing her alive again, even like this.

She scrunched up her brow, and he realized he might have said too much at once, and confused her. But then she nodded and turned and sat, with her back to him, and then scooted her butt forward and leaned back, accommodatingly bracing herself on her elbows, so he could easily reach the nape of her neck. He raised the swords and froze. _What if she's in a different position than Eren? What if I chop off her head off or slice her neck by mistake? What if I kill her?_

"Cut, Le-vi," she ordered.

He took a deep breath, uttered a quick prayer to the God he hated and no longer believed in and swung. His blades cut through cleanly, and to his relief, she tumbled out, the way Eren did when his Titan form was eager to release him.

Hange blinked up at him, a confused frown on her face, as she sat up and looked around. "Where are we? What… where'd the City go?" she asked in consternation.

Then her eyes widened as she saw her naked legs, below the bloody, jagged remains of her once white Survey Corps pants, and her eyes shot to the giant Titan rapidly steaming away beside them. "Oh my God! That's me, isn't it?" she yelled in excitement, running to see, climbing onto it, and then cursing as she burned herself. "But how…?"

"Your Titan form can talk, one syllable at a time. You called me by name, and called Armin a brat. That's how I knew it was you. You said, 'mouth' and 'blood.' You were trying to tell me Leonhart's blood made you shift. Are you saying your Titan form is smarter than you are?" Levi teased.

"My Titan form can **talk**?" Hange squealed in excitement, grinning.

He hugged her, clinging to her.

"Levi? Are you OK?" she asked unsurely.

"I watched you get eaten. I thought you were **dead**," he accused, trying to fight back both renewed tears and laughter and not succeeding very well.

"You can't get rid of me that easily," she soothed, as she patted his back awkwardly.

"Armin, wait. Where are you going?" she called out in concern, and Levi cursed, breaking away from her and chasing after the errant Scout.

"Armin, you can't keep trying to wander off like that. Especially now that Hange's still alive. She might be able to fix you," he explained, as he brought him back.

Her eyes widened in concern and dismay as she saw Armin's blank-eyed stare. "Oh no. What happened?"

Levi swallowed hard, twice, before he could tell her. "Mikasa got bitten by a Titan, just after you did, only it didn't eat her. But she was dying and… and then Yeager Titan… he ate her. And grabbed Armin in his hand, and ran. I'd been chasing after the one that ate you, trying to reach it, to… I don't know, try to cut you out, or something, just… but I lost it, and then I ran after Yeager Titan. I figured he'd be heading for Mikasa's house, and I followed his trail.

"I haven't made it yet. I found Armin on the trail, coming down it, walking, only like this, and a bunch of Titan attacked us. I checked his head but didn't find an injury. He was still conscious and aware after he was grabbed by Yeager Titan, begging and fighting to get free. Something else must have happened, something horrific, for him to break like this," Levi explained.

"Eren ate…? Where's the Commander, and the others?" Hange asked, looking around again with a frown.

"I… I left them behind. They were all still alive when I left, but…" He looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

"You left Erwin? In the middle of the battle?" she shrilled incredulously.

"Yeah, I fucking left him! You got eaten Hange! Mikasa got eaten! Eren fucking ate her, and he grabbed Armin, and I couldn't let Armin die too, alright? And I promised Eren I'd kill him, if he killed anyone, and he fucking ate Mikasa, damn it, so yes, I left Erwin and my entire Squad to die! They would have died anyway! They always die, everyone dies!" Levi yelled, shaking wildly, all the fear and fury and self-loathing he'd been feeling for the past hours pouring out onto Hange, when all he wanted to do was hug her and cry and fall on his knees thanking God for saving her.

He felt arms around him, and conversely wanted to shrug them off. He didn't deserve for her to comfort him when… He froze. Those weren't her arms. Armin, it was Armin hugging him, his hand softly patting him on the back.

Slowly, so as not to startle him he hugged him back. "Armin? Armin, can you hear me?" he whispered, afraid to breathe.

"That's it, Armin. Levi needs a hug. So do you, don't you? That must have been very frightening before, but you're safe now. Levi and I are going to protect you, alright? Good boy. Why don't you sit down with us, there, in the trees, where it's safer, alright? We need to check Levi's leg, because he's bleeding, and I need to fix him up, alright?" she urged, obviously directing her comment at both of them. It was clear by the way she was speaking that Armin was still messed up.

_Shit, my leg. I forgot I was bleeding._

Levi led Armin to the trees and sat, keeping an eye out for Titans.

"You really did a number on this brace. I'm not sure I can get it off," Hange complained.

"Yeah, well, a Titan bit me, and I'd rather it fucked up the brace than my leg, but another one bashed me into a tree, spiking my damn leg again," he complained, as she began prying at the brace with one of Armin's sword hilts.

"Here, use this instead, if you can. You'll need his swords," he suggested, handing her one of his sheathed knives.

"Thanks. I can use the blade like a screwdriver, too," she said happily, as she examined the brace and started working on it, after cutting a swath of fabric off her shirt tail, balling it, and having him press it against the wound.

"Wait. If you take it apart, I probably won't be able to walk anymore. Can't you just bandage it this way?" he urged.

"I need to clean it and… and all we have is water. We need to get to Mikasa's cabin. I assume that's where we're headed and that we're closer to there than Shiganshina, right?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm not sure exactly how far, though. I was unconscious last time, for most of the trip down this trail," Levi admitted reluctantly. "Is there any way you can fit into Armin's maneuver gear?" Levi asked. Most of hers had been bitten off.

"Maybe, since I still have my chest straps. Let me see if I can rig something from his that will fit me," she agreed. "And any extra straps we can use to secured the bandage better. It's not bleeding badly enough to need a tourniquet, fortunately," she added.

"I didn't think so," he agreed.

"So, are you going to tell me why you're breathing funny, too? It's more than just your lungs still being tender from the pneumonia, isn't it? Are your ribs broken, cracked or bruised?" she challenged.

"Just bruised I think, cracked at the worst. I'm not going to puncture a lung or anything, and my lungs hurt like hell but they don't feel like they're congested again. I'll let you check me out fully when we get in the cabin, but we don't have time for that now. There could be more Titans. Let's just get you into Armin's gear, while I stand watch, alright?

"OK," she said, blading Armin's swords and putting them out of his reach, in case he decided to absently play with them like a toddler, and then she started unbuckling his straps.


	40. Chapter 40 - Home Sweet Home

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
If you like my Titans stories, you might also like **_**It's Not What You Think**_**, listed under D. Gray-Man. As indicated in the summary, it's a Karneval crossover story (but it isn't in the crossover section). I've also published an original four book high fantasy series featuring a number of gay and bisexual characters, Descent of Kings, available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner.**

**CAUTION – Discussion of suicidal thoughts.  
**

Chapter 40 – Home Sweet Home

Levi stared at the building that for a short time had actually felt like home, watching from the tree line.

"It looks deserted," Hange commented.

"It did the last time we were here, too. We were careful not to draw the Titans' attention," Levi commented, trying to sound dispassionate, as memories flooded him. The brats had become his friends here. His family.

Armin started whining, like a dog in fear, cowering against him.

"What's wrong? Why are you so afraid, Armin? You've been here before. This is Mikasa's house. You took care of me here, remember?" Levi coaxed.

Armin was clinging to his shirt, clutching fistfuls of fabric in his hands, his eyes wide. "Mmmmm Mmmmm," he moaned, shaking his head wildly, frantically, his eyes terror filled.

"Holy shit. You're talking. It's OK, Armin. Say that again. What are you trying to tell me?" Levi asked eagerly, staring intently into his eyes. "Hange, keep an eye out for trouble," he ordered. The last thing they needed was to be ambushed by Titans.

"Eeeeee Eeeee Mmmmm Mmmmmm," Armin whined, wild eyed and trembling, looking at the house as if it might eat him.

"I think he's freaking out because he remembers this place, and he realizes Eren might be inside. Eren's got a temper. Maybe Eren did something to him, freaked out in there, hit him or screamed at him or something, once Armin told him he ate Mikasa, maybe he snapped and attacked Armin," Levi suggested. "I'll head in first. You wait here with Armin."

Levi headed resolutely for the door, not blading his swords yet. Killing Yeager Titan was one thing. Killing Eren while he was human was something else again entirely.

He stiffened as the curtain twitched. And suddenly the door flew open, and Eren was there, wearing some of Mikasa's father's pants, in place of his own half eaten ones, and someone else's shoes, instead of his missing boots, but still in his uniform shirt and jacket.

"Levi, there you are! Where the hell have you been? We've been worried about you. And where's Armin? We thought he was with…" Eren looked past him and his scowling face relaxed. "Armin! There you are. We were… Hange? Where the hell did you come from? Did the Commander order you to look for us? Does that mean he's alright? Are some of the others here too? Armin, what's wrong? Why are you…?" he asked in concern, as Armin tried to burrow into Hange.

"Calm down brat, it's alright. I won't let him hurt you," Levi soothed. _What the fuck? Why the hell isn't Eren shocked to see Hange is alive? Shit, has Eren completely cracked?_

"Hurt Armin? Why would…? Mikasa, get out here! Levi and Armin are back, and Hange's here too, but something's wrong with Armin!" Eren bellowed at the top of his lungs.

_Shit. Fuck. No wonder Armin was terrified. Eren's totally lost it and…_

"What do you mean, something's wrong with Armin?" an impossible voice called in concern.

Levi jerked his head towards the sound. _Holy fuck._ "Mikasa?" he whispered, terrified that he was the one who was crazy, that Armin and Hange and Eren and Mikasa were all just some fucked up delusion, that maybe one of those Titans he'd thought was attacking Armin had actually eaten him, that he was in hell. Mikasa was standing in the doorway, wearing one of her mother's dresses; he'd seen it hanging in her parents' closet the last time they'd been here.

"Levi, what's wrong? Why are you…? You're bleeding! You shouldn't be walking around on your leg without your crutches. Where are they?" she demanded, as she headed for him.

"What the fuck's going on? You're dead. Why aren't you dead?" Levi demanded, blading his swords, stepping back from her, to give himself more room.

"What the hell…? What are you talking about? What's wrong with you? Hange, what's wrong with Levi? Is he delirious from his wound? Does he have a fever again?" Eren asked.

"What's wrong with **me**? You're talking to Hange like you knew she wasn't dead! You fucking ate Mikasa, and now she's standing here, and you're asking what's wrong with me?" Levi demanded, worrying himself about how loud and shrill his voice sounded, borderline hysterical, especially with the cautious looks both Mikasa and Eren were giving him. But then their eyes widened in shock and horror, as his words processed.

"What the hell do you mean, I ate Mikasa?" Eren demanded. "What the hell are you talking about? I'd never do that! I didn't eat anyone! She's standing right here!"

"Eren would never eat me," Mikasa argued. Then her eyes widened. "Oh my God. You mean… that wasn't a dream? Going back to Karanese, our mission to Shiganshina, finding that other Titan shifter, Marcel, in the basement, that was all real? My uniform. I couldn't figure out what had happened to the left sleeve, of my jacket and shirt, why they were missing. And why I was so bloody. I tried to convince myself I must have used it for bandages and just not remembered, that the blood was yours," she said in shock, her hand going to her left arm.

"Wait, what? You didn't tell me you had a dream like that too! I... No. It can't be. We woke up here, outside the cabin, we couldn't remember why we were sleeping outside, and we couldn't find you and Armin, and the carts were gone, and our packs, but... We thought maybe you'd gone hunting or something, for more provisions for the trip back and… You mean everything I dreamt really happened?" Eren asked.

_Shit. Fuck._ If they were this confused, if they'd thought this was weeks ago, Armin would have thought he was the one who was crazy. "What did you say and do to Armin?" Levi demanded.

"Armin? Nothing! I told you, we woke up and we couldn't find him, or you," Eren said, running his hands through his hair frantically, looking completely freaked out.

"Ha! I thought this might happen! Mikasa's a Titan shifter too!" Hange said, with her patented crazy grin.

"What?" Mikasa and Eren both demanded simultaneously.

Levi just stared at Hange. He hadn't even started to think why Mikasa was here and whole, he was still trying to wrap his mind around her still being alive. But Hange's words helped ground him firmly back in reality.

"Think about it. How else could you be standing here, after Eren ate you, and with two arms, instead of one?" Hange asked gleefully. "Ymir told us it's instinctual, that it's the way Titans reproduce, swallowing people infected with the Cronos Virus, that you need the enzyme in a Titan's stomach to activate it. Which means, Eren, that you were running up here, holding Armin in your hand, and Armin had watched you eat Mikasa, he knew she was dead, and he thought you were going to eat him next, but instead, Mikasa rips out from inside your stomach as a Titan and… no wonder he cracked!

"You might have picked him up, too, Mikasa, or done something to terrify him, he might have thought Eren was dead, because you destroyed his body when you emerged – it could have been anything. So it's lights out, nobody home, and he starts wandering back down the trail, for Levi to find, and then you and Mikasa both revert back, your Titan forms steam away, and you wake up, and start playing house as if it was weeks ago and you never left here, waiting for Levi and Armin to come back," Hange stated.

"But… but that would mean I really ate… Why? Why would I…?" Eren demanded, looking horrified from Hange to Mikasa.

"Instinct. Or intentionally even, to try to save her. Maybe you realized, on some level, that either your father injected her with the same thing he injected you, or because of all that sex you've been having, you infected her yourself, that all she needed to live was for you to swallow her," Hange said excitedly, as if people ate their dying girlfriends every day.

_Holy fuck. No wonder Armin cracked. I'm about ready to join him,_ Levi thought, as he stared at the three of them.

"Levi, no one's going to eat you or Armin. Why don't you put your swords away, OK?" Hange urged, her voice a little too calming and soothing.

"I'm not the one who's fucking crazy," he snapped, as he sheathed his sword blades back in his scabbards.

"Maybe if we get Armin to believe they're both real, and alive, and aren't going to hurt him?" Levi suggested. Armin was still watching them, cowering, wide-eyed and whimpering.

"I think maybe it's best Armin gets some sleep, that we give his mind a chance to reset, to process everything. He was already physically and emotionally exhausted from the battle. The mind's an amazing thing, able to do all kinds of things to protect itself, when given half a chance. He'll probably wake up thinking it was a dream, the way Eren and Mikasa did. And then we can make sure he understands it's all real, but gently and slowly, so he has time to process and accept it this time. Considering it means accepting one of his best friends – to all intents and purposes his sister – isn't dead, and his brother isn't a cannibalistic monster after all, I think it should go pretty well."

"And if that doesn't work? I'm not going to have Armin end up like Mitchell for the rest of his life," Levi argued.

"None of us want that either, Levi. We'll help him, no matter how long it takes. Mikasa, can you brew something to knock him out? And then I want you to take a look at Levi's leg. He needs his wound cleaned and treated. And can you make more of that stuff you gave him in the tunnel for his lungs? The last thing we need is him relapsing. We didn't want to take off the brace before, because he can't walk without it, and we wouldn't have been able to put it back on, and we ran into some Titans. Well, in addition to me, I mean. You and I are the newest additions to the shifter family," Hange added with another grin.

"Oh my God. I'm really a Titan shifter? And you are too? Are you sure you're not a dream?" Mikasa asked.

"Nope. Once you go to bed tonight and wake up in the morning, you'll see," Hange assured her.

"I carried Armin off? I don't remember doing that. I didn't mean to scare him," Eren said, looking guilty as hell. "Armin, you know that, right? I'd never hurt you. I… crap, you saw me eat… you must have been terrified. Is that why you stink like that? I made you pee and shit yourself?"

"No, that wasn't your fault. That happened to all of us. Well, the peeing part. Even Levi," Hange said, and Levi glared at her. He'd managed to ignore it before, in the heat of the battle, and the tragic aftermath, but now it was bugging the shit out of him.

"It's apparently got something to do with the frequency Ymir screams at, when in Titan form. She said her Titan shifter code name is Banshee. Did you know that Banshees are creatures from Irish mythology? They appear as either hideous, frightening hags, like Ymir in her Titan form, or beautiful women, like Ymir normally looks. They wail to presage someone's death. In her case, the deaths of lots and lots of Titans. Did you see the way she fights! She's amazing! But anyway, it's her fault we all stink like a tavern alleyway," Hange explained.

"Let's get inside and bathe and change, do the laundry, and have you drug Armin and treat me," Levi instructed. "But someone needs to stand Titan watch, like we used to here, especially with all the activity we saw on the trail."

"I'll do it. I had been before, I just ducked in for a minute to talk to Mikasa. That way Mikasa and Hange can take care of you and Armin. You can save the laundry for me to do this time, Captain," Eren graciously volunteered.

"I just might, brat," Levi agreed with a shudder.

0 0 0

"Even without the leg injury, you look like you can barely stand," Mikasa accused gently.

"Yeah, well, it's been a pretty shitty day," Levi replied. "And a pretty fucking fantastic one," he added, his eyes again scanning over her reverently, in obvious amazement that she was alive. "Depending upon whether Erwin and the others are alright," he qualified, with a frown.

She couldn't believe it, when Hange softly told her that Levi had just abandoned Erwin, that he'd gone AWOL in the middle of the battle, to go after Eren and Armin.

"I'm sorry I frightened you like that," she apologized.

"Tch. You didn't ask to be bitten. Or eaten," he replied.

"No. But I can see how much it upset you, thinking Hange and I were both dead. I'm glad we weren't, not just for our sakes," she soothed.

"I'm fucking glad too," Levi agreed, clearing his throat a few times afterwards.

She'd seen the trails of tears streaking his dirty face. In fact, she'd never seen him look like that, not just dirty, but broken, not even when they'd rescued him after he'd been thrown into the spiked pit and climbed his way out, without even being able to walk.

They went inside, and Eren watched over Armin, while Mikasa prepared the poultice for Levi's leg, and Hange disassembled the brace. Then he headed back outside, to watch for Titans.

"At least your leg isn't as badly injured, this time," she assured Levi, as she slathered the honey poultice onto his leg after cleaning the wound to ensure it didn't become infected. The last thing he needed was another life threatening infection.

"Yeah. And not like it wasn't already scarred," Levi agreed, frowning at his leg.

"I'm sure Erwin's safe. The others will have protected him," Mikasa soothed, knowing he was worried about Erwin, not his leg.

"What if he isn't? What if I killed him, too?" Levi asked so softly, she almost couldn't hear.

"You never killed anyone, Levi. Well, not your friends and comrades, at least. That would be like saying I killed my parents, just because I was there and couldn't save them. Sometimes people die, no matter how much we want to save them. Even if the worst happens, Eren and Armin and Hange and I are all here to make sure you understand that, and to keep you from doing something stupid," she said firmly, pulling the bandage a little too tight.

He winced, and she relented.

"I wouldn't kill myself, now," he argued, wincing again, obviously this time having nothing to do with physical pain.

"Now?" she challenged coolly, but her heart was racing. _Oh God. He was actually thinking about, maybe even planning to kill himself earlier?_

"I thought you were all dead, alright? You and Hange, and everyone else, that Eren might have eaten Armin, and I knew I had to kill Eren, because I promised him I would, that he might be my last surviving fucking friend and… I'm only human, Mikasa. There's only so much I can take, before I break, the way Jean broke. And he had a hell of a lot more left to live for than I did. He still had Sasha and Connie, and hell, even you and Eren and the rest of the 104th. The twelve of you… you're all I've got," Levi justified.

"Fair enough. But don't count anyone else dead, OK? Maybe not even if you see their body. Because you, me, Eren and Armin seem to do a pretty good job coming back from the dead, and it looks like Hange's joined the club. In fact, as shifters, Eren, Hange and I are going to be pretty damned hard to kill now, I think," Mikasa added.

"Tch. Three of my closest friends are Titans. Never thought I'd say that. Any part of that: that they were Titans, or that I had more than three friends, that I think of any of you as close. You three brats have really fucked me up, you know that?" Levi accused.

"Yeah. Well, I never thought I'd like a certain prisoner-abusing clean-freak Captain, either," Mikasa rebutted playfully.

"Do you think he's going to be OK? Armin? Do you think…? He can't stay like that," Levi said, his voice sounding suddenly gravelly.

"He won't. We won't let him. Hange told me that him holding you like that was a good sign, and him trying to talk. Even him being afraid of us: the fact that he was reacting to outside stimuli at all. She thinks his brain just has to reset, to process everything he saw. That if he wakes up warm and safe and dry, with us all around him it might be enough.

"I know you're eager to find out what happened to the others, but your leg needs time to heal, your lungs need to rest, and Armin needs time, too. Even if he's alright in the morning, I don't want to risk heading back tomorrow. I want to give him time to see what's real, to believe it, to wake up to reality more than once. And frankly, I think Eren and I need that too. And the more time we give you, the better, before you have to walk down that trail again, because this time we don't have a cart to roll you in, although we could build a travois if we need to. Then we'll go back, first to Shiganshina, and if we don't find anyone, to the tunnel," Mikasa insisted, patting his bandaged leg.

"Yes, ma'am," Levi agreed, a hint of teasing in his voice that made her heart unclench just a little. Seeing Armin all but comatose and Levi wrecked would have been unbearable, without Eren, and he was still outside on guard.

"Mikasa? Do you know where your mother kept the radio? Was it in your parents' bedroom, or a secret room?" Hange asked.

Mikasa had noticed her hovering, apparently waiting for them to stop speaking with surprising patience, instead of interrupting, which just went to show how much she cared about Levi. "I think it must have been in their bedroom, maybe hidden in the back of the closet or something, because I never saw it, the few times I was in there, but Dr. Yeager found it easily enough, apparently," Mikasa replied.

"And you're sure your mother's book is the code key?" she asked.

"Relatively sure. As I said, she'd have it out a number of nights and be writing," Mikasa said. Her book was in her pack, back in Shiganshina. She hoped it was still safe.

"Do you know if she kept any of those messages? In a book, or a box? Do you mind if I look for them? Hange asked, being remarkably considerate and polite.

"Not at all. As long as you're respectful of their things," Mikasa qualified. She hadn't even thought that some or maybe even all of those many messages might still exist. Were they already part of what they found in Eren's basement, or were they still here? Had Dr. Yeager overlooked them, or not thought them important? He must have taken the radio out of scientific curiosity. Unless he knew about it already?

"Of course. You loved your parents. Any parent worthy of a child's love is worthy of respect," Hange said.

Mikasa saw Levi look pained, his eyes flicking to Hange. She wondered why. Maybe Hange's parents hadn't been worthy of respect or love? She already knew Levi's weren't. Well, his father, and Kenny Ackerman, the man who'd raised him. She didn't know how he felt about his mother. He never talked about her.

"I'm going to start dinner. We need to eat. Meatless tonight, I'm afraid. I don't want to hunt, if there's a lot of Titan activity. What's in the garden will have to do for tonight," Mikasa apologized.

"Good. I don't want you endangering yourself. Titan shifters can still be killed, or they wouldn't have been so worried about Marcel," Levi agreed.

0 0 0

Levi surveyed the laundry hanging all over the living room with a critical eye. Eren had done the first wash of it all, the most disgusting part, while Hange stood watch. Levi had done the two after that. Nothing stained like piss and shit, but thanks to the bleach Mikasa's mother had, they'd gotten the worst part of the stains out. It still wasn't remotely clean, nowhere near up to his standards, but it at least** smelled** clean.

The five of them had bathed and were wearing just about every last stitch of clothing Mikasa's parents' room had to offer. Armin and Eren were both in Mikasa's mother's dresses, though she'd taken pity on them and cut the skirts and then fastened the material with safety pins around each leg, for the sake of both dignity and mobility. After some hesitation, she'd done the same with her own dress. Levi and Hange were both wearing Mikasa's father's clothes. They fit Hange better than they fit him, but he was used to it. He'd travelled all the way to the Capital, dressed like this.

"Levi? You need to get some sleep. I'm going to take the watch after Hange, and then Eren's going to relieve me. In the morning, I'll hunt, and you can harvest beeswax from the remaining hive to make torches for the return journey, and candles. You're going to have plenty to do, so you need to sleep now, alright?" she urged gently.

"Eren and Hange and I are going to take turns sleeping with one another in my parent's bed, when we're not on watch. Hange suggested you should sleep with Armin, in your old room. She said it would be best if you hold him, that feeling arms around him would make him feel safe. We used to sleep that way all the time, as kids, the three of us. But she said scent is a powerful stimulant for the brain, for memory, and we don't smell like children anymore. Hange said waking up with the smell of cedar and jasmine and lavender and you will make him feel safe, will remind him of pleasant memories, of making a new friend, and give his mind a chance to reset, so it can work properly again. If he smelled me or Eren, it might just frighten him worse, since he thinks I'm dead, and that Eren killed me. The same with Hange. He saw her die, too," she said sadly, wistfully.

Levi froze, at the thought of sleeping with Armin, in the same bed, waiting to hear Kenny's vicious commentary in his head, about the betrayal, something sick and twisted, about how convenient it was, that he got Armin as a reward for killing Erwin and Jean, about how he could do anything he wanted to Armin, and he wouldn't be able to fight him, or even speak to tell anyone about it. But thankfully, Kenny's voice was silent.

Because Kenny wasn't really in his head, just the memory of every cruel action he'd ever taken, ever vicious word he'd ever spoken. And Mikasa and Eren and Hange were here, he wasn't alone anymore. That asshole's voice was always strongest when he was alone, when he was feeling weak, helpless. He wasn't about to let that twisted fucker keep him from helping Armin. _Shit. Fuck_. But his own messed up mind would.

"Mikasa, I can't. I can't sleep, if I'm with him. I'll attack him when I wake up, try to kill him," he admitted shamefacedly. Even if he slept without his knives under his pillow and beside the bed, he could strangle him or snap his neck with a single blow.

"You won't, Levi," Mikasa assured him.

He opened his mouth to argue the point, when she smiled reassuringly and spoke.

"Remember the boat, in the tunnel? You slept, with us in the boat, both last trip and this one, and you never once tried to kill any of us when you woke," she reminded him.

_Holy shit. She's right. I slept and woke up and…_ He stared at her, stunned, not wanting to believe it.

"You don't see any of us as a threat, Levi. You trust us," she explained.

He frowned. "But Erwin. I…" He'd attacked Erwin. "And you. I attacked you, in my room, on base," he argued, not wanting to think about the implications of attacking Erwin. _Does that mean I still don't trust him, after all this time, after everything?_

"I wasn't sleeping with you, in bed with you. You went to bed alone and woke up with someone else in the room, right next to your bed. Of course you felt threatened. Anyone would, in a situation like that. As for Erwin… you love him, but he's an enormous threat to you. He's your Commander. He orders and you obey. You hate authority, having anyone with power over you makes you feel weak. Being in love with that person makes you feel that much more vulnerable.

"That's why you fight, sometimes, why you lash out at him, to prove to yourself that he doesn't control you, that you can survive without him. But he doesn't want to control you, Levi. Everything I've ever seen, his entire command structure, incorporates you as a partner. If military regulation allowed it, I'm certain he'd share his command with you officially, too.

"But unlike Erwin, Armin's not a threat to you. You know he would never, ever try to harm you. Well, there was that one time on base, but he wasn't in his right mind. Other than that, he's done everything in his power to help you and protect you. And you know that. But more, he's like a kid brother to you, almost a son even. You'd never do anything to harm him, either. We trust you, Levi and so does he. It's time you start trusting yourself, too, time you realize how wonderful you are, the way we all do," Mikasa said sincerely, her gaze intent.

_If Mikasa is wrong…_ But Levi trusted her. She knew and understood him better than anyone else ever had, better than Erwin, even better than Hange. The way Petra and Furlan had. "Alright. Goodnight, Mikasa. And thanks," he said, without any of the awkwardness he would have felt with anyone else.

She smiled, with that sweet fondness that had so amazed him. "Goodnight Levi. And only pleasant dreams, alright?"

He nodded, as if he had any control over what he dreamt, and entered Mikasa's old bedroom. It looked and smelled just as he remembered it, except this time, the little blond cherub was in his bed, instead of beside it.

He scanned the room. The bureau would be the best place. One by one, he deliberately unsheathed his hidden knives from under his borrowed clothes, and placed them on the bureau. Then he went to the chair and double checked his maneuver gear straps were untangled, by the light of the single candle that illuminated the room. They'd taken the oil lanterns with them, when they'd left last time. His sword hilts and scabbards were set so if there was need for them, he could draw them quickly.

Levi pulled off his boots and headed for the bed in his socks. He'd be sleeping dressed tonight. He would, even if Armin wasn't in the bed. He only slept naked on base, in his own room. He'd leave the candle lit, in case he had to rise quickly to fight, and in case Armin woke up earlier than they expected. Not because he didn't want to lie there in the dark.

Armin looked peaceful, as if he was truly just asleep, and not drugged. As if he'd wake up, and his eyes would be lit with the thousand questions and answers his bright mind wanted to share with the world. "Please be OK, brat," he whispered, as he sat down cautiously on the bed. Armin didn't stir.

With a sigh, Levi lifted the blanket and lay down beside him. Armin was warm, and soft, sweet smelling, from lavender and jasmine, Mikasa's mother's soap and bath oil, from the sponge bath he'd been given. Levi smelled like that too, from his own bath, instead of like sweat and blood and fear, but the memories were still there, raw and brutal, just beneath the surface, fighting to be free.

He turned to Armin, lying on his left side and tentatively, cautiously, laid his right arm around his chest, gently embracing him, the way Hange said he needed to be, to be held, safe, loved. After a moment's hesitation, he laid his injured right leg over his legs, too, to keep Armin from moving around too much in his sleep, to keep him from kicking, if he managed to have nightmares, in spite of the sedative they'd given him.

Levi tried to breathe in and out deeply, steadily, to settle his mind, but his still tender lungs forced him to breathe shallowly, and now that he had time to think, flashes of the battle kept intruding, of Erwin and the others in danger, of him abandoning them. He hugged Armin a little more tightly, trying to drive the images away, but knowing he was in for another in an endless string of sleepless nights.


	41. Chapter 41 - Loyalty and Betrayal

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 41 – Loyalty and Betrayal

Erwin looked at the obvious trail, leading away from the Wall, towards the mountain, and then down the Wall, towards the tunnel, and finally frowning, at the sun. It was already late in the afternoon. They needed to find Levi before nightfall. "I think half of us should go back through the tunnel. It's important we don't lose the radio and those books and journals, and there's no telling what we'll be facing on that mountain. Kirstein, I want you to lead the forces heading for the tunnel and…."

"No sir. I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going up that mountain. I stayed and fought with you, but I'm not leaving Armin with Eren, not after… I'm going, sir. You can court martial me for insubordination later, after Armin is safe," Jean insisted bravely.

"Springer, Blouse?" Erwin asked, instead of trying to exert his authority.

"No sir. Levi needs to see me. I know he would have been very worried about me, and after losing both Hange and Mikasa, I think it's important I be there," Blouse respectfully argued.

"And I go where Sasha goes," Springer challenged firmly, even as he eyed the now normally sized and shaped German shepherds at Reiner Braun's heels warily, his hands fisted tightly on his sword hilts.

Erwin was glad for the dogs' presence. They'd successfully trailed Levi's and Yeager's scents so far, but they unfortunately also had Springer completely on edge, though he'd been mastering his phobia remarkably well, so far.

"Anders and Bauer?" Thankfully, thanks to the dogs, they'd found Bauer alive and unharmed not ten blocks from their battle. He'd nearly made it back to them.

"Levi is my Squad leader, sir. I wasn't able to protect him last mission, and I'll be damned if I leave him out here on this one," Bauer argued.

"I already thought I lost Heinrich in Shiganshina. He's my best friend sir, my brother, after what we lived through together. I'd rather not be separated from him again out here sir, unless you order it," Anders stated, looking from him to Bauer.

"Kearney, O'Seanessey?" Erwin asked.

"I'm as worried about Levi as the lass, sair. Him leaving you the way he did, leaving all of us like that, that's not like the Captain. I think the grief's really gotten to him, this time. I think he needs to see us, to know he still has friends among the living," O'Seanessey argued.

Kearney nodded. "I agree, sair."

"And I doubt you want the five of us to take your treasure and slip away," Ymir said wryly. "Nor would we want to. If we're going to have lasting peace, after everything that's happened, we need to build trust. On top of that, there's a chance Annie's escaped by now, and if she has, who knows what kind of damage she's done? Besides, the little prick has chutzpah. You don't see that a lot anymore. There aren't many men I'd willingly follow, but both you and the Captain have earned my loyalty and respect sir, in spite of how it might have appeared."

"You wouldn't want me to leave without telling you everything, about the charges against you and how I know you're innocent, and we don't have the time to go into that now. And our second employer wouldn't want us to leave Levi out here," Lenz added bluntly.

"Christ Ymir. So you're what, a quadruple agent now? Working for the Mista'arvim, Alpha Squad, the Survey Corps, and some mystery boss?" Braun challenged.

"Hey, a girl's got to keep her options open in this man's world to eat, and only one of you fuckers is actually paying me," Ymir said with a smile.

From what she said, the Mista'arvim and Leonhart's Squad were both from a hundred years ago. The Corps was certainly paying her. _So, if this mystery boss isn't, how is he inspiring whatever amount of loyalty he's receiving? Threats? Blackmail? If it's Kenny Ackerman, that's likely the case. It can't be Nile. He might hate me enough to frame me for treason, but she said her boss wouldn't want Levi left out here, and Nile hates Levi. He would be thrilled to abandon Levi to die. So if Ackerman is using threats or blackmail, Lenz is likely the target, in which case, protecting her would help cement Ymir's loyalty to the Corps, or rather, from what she said, to me and to Levi. Levi. Please be alright._

"We'd like to go with you, Commander. We still have a lot to tell you, and there are things we don't know about you that we need to, because we can't leave someone in power in the Survey Corps if they're potentially a threat to the stability of the government behind the Walls, and we don't know why Ymir and Krista were investigating you for treason," Hoover said.

"You've all raised a number of salient points. Alright, then we'll all go together. We'll continue to take turns carrying the crates in pairs," Erwin suggested.

"I can carry either the books or the radio for as long as you need me to. I won't tire out. It's a Titan thing. Comes in handy for forced marches with a full pack," Reiner Braun volunteered.

"You take the books, I'll take the radio. Brawn over brains, Braun," Ymir said with a smirk.

"Tch. I finally meet a woman with an IQ higher than mine, and she's a lesbian," Braun complained, as he picked up the crate Anders and Bauer had been team carrying, as if it weighed nothing.

"Tch. You're lucky the Major wasn't here to hear you say that, Captain," Ymir teased.

Braun scowled and Ymir winced. "Sorry. I forgot for a moment. Look, we'll get her out of there, OK? And once she sees Marcel is safe, maybe she'll go back to how she was before," Ymir encouraged.

"Yeah. Maybe," Braun said skeptically, an edge of sadness as well as doubt in his voice.

"Time to head out," Erwin ordered, and he began leading them towards the mountain, following the large and small footprints.

0 0 0

"Sir? It looks like there was a battle here," Sasha reported, biting her lip, frowning in concern at the signs, easily visible even in the dying rays of the setting sun. They had traveled a considerable way up the trail on the mountainside. The ground around them now was torn up, there were broken tree branches and… "There's blood. Someone was wounded," she added, rubbing the flaking dried brown from her fingers. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of it, but it was definitely human: Titan blood would have just steamed away and there were no animal tracks to account for it.

"There's a half torn, half cut strap off someone's maneuver gear harness here," Connie added.

"Shit. And I just found a flare gun. Why would Captain Levi leave it here? It doesn't look like it's jammed. Unless he'd used his last flare. Or dropped it and then had to run," Jean commented, as he handed it to Erwin.

"It looks like someone was sitting here, in the dirt and… Commander! He wasn't alone! There's one more… no! Two more sets of footprints. A small set, in boots, and a bigger set… barefoot? Eren! His legs were bitten off, so his boots were eaten. When he changed back, he wouldn't have any boots. And the others must be Armin! He's alright!" Sasha said in relief.

"If Levi found both Eren and Armin, why didn't he head back down the trail?" Erwin questioned.

"Maybe either Eren or Armin was the one hurt, and he thought it would be safer to tend them in the cabin?" Sasha proposed.

"Or Levi was the one hurt, and Yeager and Arlert decided that," Erwin countered, his face in a mask of calm she knew he didn't feel.

"Whichever, it looks like we keep going," Sasha suggested gently. She was worried about Levi too.

"Agreed. Good work, Blouse, Springer, Kirstein," Erwin commented.

"Thank you, sir," they all replied.

_We're coming Levi. Please be OK, _Sasha silently urged.

Sasha kept her eyes on the tracks, struggling to see details in the setting sun, frowning, as they moved up the trail. "Sir? The one set of footprints, the smaller ones, with boots… it looks like they were heading down the trail from up higher, alone. The barefoot ones, the first I saw of them was at the battle site. It looks like Eren joined Levi there, but that Armin was higher up on the mountain? It doesn't really make any sense. And… there's something wrong with Armin's tracks. I think he might be injured or something. Concussed, maybe? Because it almost looks like he's drunk, the way he's walking," she added frowning, as she studied the stumbling, somewhat rambling trail of footprints in concern.

"Apparently Arlert escaped from Yeager, and was trying to get back to Shiganshina, before Yeager joined him and Levi," Erwin hypothesized. "But all three sets of tracks are definitely headed back up the mountain now? You're sure?" Erwin challenged.

"Yes sir. And… um… you know how I mentioned Levi was limping before, that his leg must be bothering him, even with the brace? He might have injured it again, sir, in that battle. Because the way he's moving now… it's definitely a lot worse than before the battle site," she said apologetically.

"Understood," Erwin said, his voice tense, the word clipped.

She knew how he felt. She was worried about him too. About all of them.

0 0 0

"Do you smell that sir? Woodsmoke," Sasha reported, pulling back to the others. "We must be close to the cabin."

It was fully dark now, which had slowed their progress to a crawl. The shifters had volunteered to lead them, saying they had better night vision, but Erwin didn't trust them well enough. The last thing they needed was to wander off of the overgrown trail, into the woods in the dark, especially as they hadn't been entirely sure the trail led all the way to the house. But they didn't want to wait for daylight to press on, either, since the filtered moonlight made travel still possible, and at least the dogs ensured they were still following Levi's and Yeager's trail, unless Reiner and Bertolt were tricking them, but she didn't think so.

"Alright. Stay on your toes, everyone," Erwin ordered. "Remember, Yeager Titan might be violent, completely out of control, and just because it's night doesn't mean that he'll be inactive. Aberrants can be active at night, and to all intents and purposes, shifters are Aberrants. And his night vision will give him the advantage over the humans in our group. We need to take him down, before he hurts anyone else. But take him alive, if you can. We need to find out why Levi hasn't already killed him," Erwin added grimly.

Sasha was anxious to reach the cabin. Titans might not normally hunt at night, but other predators did, and so did daytime predators, when they were hungry enough.

A short while later, she pulled back into the tree line. "There it is sir, just up ahead. Eren's outside, in human form. He appears to be on Titan watch," she stated, her heart pounding.

"And Levi and Arlert?" Erwin asked tensely.

"I didn't see them. They might be inside. The building, I mean," she qualified. Because they might be inside Eren's stomach, too, but she didn't want to think about that possibility.

"Alright. We need to capture Yeager, alive," Erwin ordered.

"Let us do it, sir. It's what we were trained for, infiltration and target acquisition or suppression," Reiner offered.

"We won't kill him," Bertolt was quick to assure the Commander.

"He'll never see us coming, not even with his night vision," Ymir assured him.

"You'd better be including me," Marcel added. "I'm faster and quieter than any of you."

Sasha was amazed at how well Marcel had kept up, considering he'd been all but dead for the past five years.

"I know you don't fully trust us, sir, but we're still Scouts, until the military kicks us out," Reiner added, seeing Erwin wavering.

Erwin eyed him steadily. "Alright. Take him alive," he ordered.

"Krista, you're staying here with them, babe," Ymir commanded.

She nodded in response. "Be careful."

Reiner ordered Hans and Otto to stay, to behave, and then, to Sasha's astonishment, the four shifters, still in human form, vanished into the trees. One moment they were there, and the next, they were gone. She tried to spot them, but there was no sign of anyone, or sound of movement, in spite of the dried leaves, needles and twigs littering the ground. It became belatedly, brutally clear they could easily have slipped away at any time, into the night, had they chosen to do so, taking the crates containing the books and radio with them.

A few tense moments later there was a loud crack and crash, and Sasha winced, wondering which of them had screwed up, until suddenly a Titan appeared from the heart of the woods, to the left of their position. It was big, it would have been 15 meters tall, had it been standing, but it was leaping, more like a frog than a man, as it landed in the clearing directly in front of the house.

The dogs were vibrating with the barely suppressed need to attack, but Reiner had ordered them to stay, and his control was fortunately up to the task. They weren't barking or even growling, as the Titan attacked Eren.

"Aberrant! Wake up!" Eren yelled at the top of his lungs, apparently warning either Armin or Levi, maybe even both, as he bladed his swords to attack it. But in that moment he himself was attacked, knocked to the ground and pinned by Reiner, even as Ymir, Marcel and Bertolt attacked the Aberrant, all still in human form.

No one expected a second and then third Aberrant to come crashing out of the woods. The second one nearly swallowed Ymir, who leapt away from the steaming carcass of the first Titan just in time. Marcel knocked Bertolt safely away from the grasping hand of the third, rolling with him back into the cover of the trees.

"Reiner! Let me up, you bastard!" Eren roared, as he bucked and kicked and bit, trying to get Reiner off of him.

"Anders, Bauer, help Braun make sure Yeager stays secure. Everyone else, attack," Erwin ordered, and they all headed for the clearing in front of the house, some on foot, and others grappled to the Titans or the roof or trees.

"Get off him, you fucking traitor," Levi roared, running out of the house and heading for Eren and Reiner at a limping run, swords in hands, as if oblivious to the attacking Titans.

"Levi!" Erwin yelled in relief and frustration.

"Levi!" Sasha echoed. _Thank God he's alive!_ But the last thing they needed was Levi fighting Reiner and freeing Eren in the middle of a Titan attack.

"Erwin?" Levi yelled, astonished, and then he dove out of the way, barely in time, as the third Aberrant pounced, almost crushing him.

_Why isn't he…?_ To her horror she realized he not only wasn't wearing his uniform, but also wasn't in his maneuver gear, that Eren wasn't either, and then she belatedly realized the bottom portion of Eren's gear had been eaten. Which meant both of them were in grave danger, fighting Titans by moonlight on foot without gas or grapples to aid them, especially since Levi was injured.

"Connie, help me kill it!" she called desperately, as she tried to shoot a grapple into the shoulder of the third Titan, but it lurched to the side unexpectedly, and she missed.

Connie's grapple hit, but in the monster's cheek, not back, and he was jerked towards its yawning mouth. He tried to use the momentum of his swing to curve around to its back anyway, but then the second Titan swatted him, as it was fighting its own opponents, sending him flying towards the trees.

"Connie!" Sasha screamed, certain he was dead, but then Krista was there, catching him, keeping him from slamming headfirst into the tree trunks surrounding the clearing and house.

Then Krista screamed as a lashing Titan hand grabbed her line and jerked it, barely keeping hold of Connie.

Something hard and huge slammed into Sasha, and she belatedly realized she was dead, that her inattention had just gotten her killed, until instead of dropping into a mouth, she was swung into an arc into the trees. She looked up into Reiner's glaring face.

"You made me let go of Eren," he accused, as he deposited her safely on a high but sturdy tree branch.

"Connie, Krista!" Sasha replied frantically.

"Calm down. Marcel already rescued them," Reiner assured her, as he scanned the battlefield. "The kid's fast as fuck and nearly as strong as I am," he added proudly, but then he scowled, in concern. "Damn it, Bertie!" He launched off the branch, back into the fray.

Sasha reoriented herself just in time to see one of the two remaining Titans, she'd lost track of which was which, land on the roof of the formerly sturdy cabin, caving in the left side.

"Armin!" Eren and Levi both screamed in panic, as they ran for the house.

A moment later the house erupted in a green flash and a fourth Titan burst forth from it, a helpless captive in each hand. Sasha had no idea who the person in its right hand was, but even by moonlight, Armin's distinctive blond hair shone above the clutching fingers of the left. Her heart clenched in terror. He was limp, lifeless in the Titan's hand. "Armin! Let go of him!" she screamed, as she shot out her grapples, heading for the monster's neck

"Armin!" Jean yelled, as his grapples hit too.

"Sasha!" Connie yelled, and she saw him swing up behind the monster holding Armin captive.

"No, don't! Stop!" a hoarse female voice yelled, and the figure in the right hand climbed out and ran up the Titan's arm. It wasn't a Scout, it was a civilian, but she ran up the Titan's arm as if it was nothing and dove for Connie, in a complete lack of self preservation. Astonishingly, she accurately gauged and intercepted his swing, knocking him off target.

Then the Titan's right hand lashed out, snatching Jean out of the air. Sasha shot her grapples into its arm, and began hacking at its hand, desperate to free Jean before he was crushed like Armin had been, even as the stranger cut Connie's line and sent them both plummeting towards the ground.

"Connie!" Sasha dove off the Titan, desperate to protect Connie, even as they twisted in midair, and his attacker took the full impact of the fall on her back.

"Mikasa!" Eren yelled insanely, his voice full of panic.

Sasha yanked Connie up and away off of… "Oh my God! It can't be," Sasha whispered, stunned, stumbling back. _Mikasa. She looks like Mikasa._ "But… but Eren** ate** you!" she yelled in denial.

"Erwin, no, don't! It's Hange!" Levi yelled desperately, even as the Titan holding Armin and Jean captive dodged to the side, neatly evading the Commander's attack.

_Hange? Where?_

Sasha looked around wildly, as the woman with Mikasa's face sat up with a groan.

"Are you alright? What were you thinking? You could have broken your back!" Eren yelled, running up and embracing her.

"It would have healed," she soothed, as she stood, somewhat unsteadily.

"But you… you're…." Sasha said in disbelief, looking from Eren to her.

"Yeager, Levi, what the hell is going on?" Erwin demanded, eying them both warily.

"Everyone stay back, don't attack her! This Titan is Hange!" Levi ordered, standing protectively in front of her. "Shitty Glasses, good job, but you can put Jean and Armin down now, and then I'm going to cut you out of there, now that the final two have been destroyed, okay?"

"O-kay, Le-vi," the enormous Titan rumbled, to Sasha's amazement.

"Oh my God. It's really Hange? She's alive? She's a Titan? She can speak?" Sasha asked, astonished, as both Jean and Armin were lowered carefully to the ground.

Levi headed at a limping run to the Titan's back, as she obediently lay back, supported by her elbows, making it easy for him to reach the back of her neck, to cut her out.

Jean ran to Armin, and began frantically checking him for signs of life.

"Both Hange and I are shifters now, sir," Mikasa announced to Erwin, as if that explained everything. "Jean, it's alright. Armin isn't hurt, he's just drugged," she soothed. "Eren, get back on lookout, while Levi, Hange and I explain it to them."

Eren grabbed Mikasa by the shoulders and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied, dispelling any lingering doubt that it couldn't be Mikasa, and for some reason, she truly still loved Eren, even though he'd eaten her.

"Kearney, O'Seanessey, check the structural integrity of the remainder of the house," Levi ordered. "It looks like Armin's room and half the living room is gone, but there's a second bedroom and I'd prefer to spend the night indoors, if we can, although not if the rest of the roof is going to cave in on us." Then he hugged Hange. "When I saw the roof cave in, I thought…"

"Mikasa and I woke up when Eren and you yelled and had just gotten Armin out of your bedroom, before it was destroyed, but I thought the rest of the ceiling might cave in along with it, and it was obvious there was more than one Titan, so I shifted," Hange explained.

"Armin wasn't hurt?" Levi asked anxiously.

"Not a scratch. Although it looks like the plan for the morning is shot to hell. But if our bedroom is still intact, and the house is safe enough, I'd like to try having you and Armin sleep together there instead. Although now that Jean's here, maybe he should be the one sleeping with Armin," Hange qualified, as Jean scowled at Levi suspiciously, hugging the unconscious Armin possessively and protectively.

"Levi, report!" Erwin demanded.

Levi scanned the faces around them. "Holy shit. Everyone's alive. And you're still working together with the shifters, even with Hoover and Braun," he stated, sounding astonished. Then he turned to Erwin. "I went AWOL to try to rescue Armin and to kill Eren. I found Armin coming back down the trail from higher up on the mountain, from here, most likely. Then a bunch of Titans attacked us. I killed them, but another Titan snuck up behind us. Lucky for us both, it was Hange. She'd apparently been following me, or my trail, since I left the City. And as you've seen, she can talk and reason in Titan form. She told me she was infected with the Titan virus through Leonhart's blood, when she… That's right. The other shifters don't know about Leonhart, unless you told them. Have you?" Levi asked Erwin.

"Told us what?" Reiner asked threateningly.

"No. We hadn't discussed it yet," Erwin said. He turned to Reiner. "We used a reinvented explosive, dynamite, to free Leonhart, but the plan didn't work perfectly. Her nose and mouth were still covered in crystal when she awoke. She couldn't breathe. Apparently, in addition to sunlight and water, Titans need oxygen as much as other humans, at least while in human form. Yeager's basement and that coffin must not have been air tight. Leonhart asphyxiated, before we could fully free her face, but fortunately Hange successfully resuscitated her. Unfortunately, Leonhart's cheek was cut, and Hange got blood all over her mouth, and apparently was infected with the Cronos Virus through the blood," Erwin stated.

"I had a cold sore in my mouth, at the time," Hange added. "I still might have been infected, but that kind of clinched it."

"So Annie's not dead?" Reiner challenged.

Sasha had told them they'd freed her to a point, but she didn't blame him for needing to confirm it, after seeing Mikasa and Hange were Titans too now. Which she was still having trouble wrapping her mind around.

"No. She's currently catatonic, we think because of the lack of sunlight. Now that we've seen the effect of prolonged confinement without sunlight results in mummification, we're going to have to rethink her confinement, assuming it even continues, once your group and ours continue our negotiations," Erwin added diplomatically.

Levi stiffened at the statement, and Sasha realized Erwin would likely have a fight on his hands. Levi wasn't likely to agree to let her walk free, not after Annie massacred his old Squad.

"Alright," Reiner agreed.

"Continue, Levi," Erwin ordered.

"So the three of us went up the trail, and found the house still intact. Eren was inside. When we confronted him, he was confused. He'd been worried Armin and I were missing, and didn't seem at all surprised to see Hange was alive. Then he called for Mikasa and… and she came out of the house and…" Levi cleared his throat, and Sasha realized he was choked with emotion. She could only imagine what it had been like for him, seeing her alive, after watching her get eaten.

"Speaking with them, it became clear they thought the past few weeks, including the battle, were a dream, that we were all still living together in the cabin, that it was still after our last mission, when they rescued me. We cleared that up, and dug in for the night, because I injured my leg again and Armin… I'd rather explain that part to you, Jean, Sasha and Connie separately," Levi said, looking pained, in a way that made Sasha's stomach lurch. It must be really bad, if Levi wanted her and Connie there for Jean.

"The living room should still be at least halfway intact, if Kearney and Liam confirm the roof is stable enough to be safe. If you brought your packs with you, with your spare clothes, you can wash up and change, and you can leave your dirty clothes outside, for Eren and me to wash in the morning," Levi added. "We'll have to dig our clothes out from the rubble, but at least now we should have our spares, too."

"The one room is completely demolished, sir, but the large bedroom appears intact, as well as the kitchen area and half the living room," Kearney reported. "It's a sturdy, well built house. In the morning, perhaps with the help of some of our shifters, we can see about mending the roof, since this seems to have become an important way station for the Corps."

"Alright. Anders, Bauer, relieve Yeager on watch. Everyone else inside, with our supplies and the crates," Erwin ordered.


	42. Chapter 42 - Repercussions

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 42 – Repercussions

Once they were inside, Armin was laid down on the bed in the intact bedroom. Mikasa and Eren helped organize everyone to wash and change. After Erwin cleaned up and changed, before Kirstein was finished doing the same, Erwin pulled Levi into Armin's room, and shut the door.

He wanted to pull Levi into his arms and hold him, to reassure himself Levi was alive, and safe, in spite of obviously injuring his leg again, from the extent he was limping. The brace was also conspicuously absent. But he was still the Commander of the Corps, and Levi was his subordinate, so he pushed his personal feelings aside, for the time being. "You went AWOL. You deserted in the middle of a battle. You abandoned me and betrayed the Corps," Erwin accused stonily.

Levi swallowed hard and nodded, meeting his eyes, his own eyes filled with pain and guilt. "I know. I thought I killed you all. I still can't believe there were no casualties. I know we might all be wiped out tonight, or any time before we reach the tunnel, or inside it, but… I can't believe you're all still alive."

The Commander in him wanted to be cruel, to say, "No thanks to you, **Captain**," but the lover wanted to embrace him and hug the pain away. Erwin sighed. "Even Hange and Ackerman, when they shouldn't be. What's wrong with Arlert? It must be serious, if you didn't want the others to hear."

Levi explained Arlert's condition, and then kept on speaking, explaining everything that had happened in detail, even what he was thinking and feeling, hiding nothing, not even the suicidal thoughts he'd been having, obviously desperate for him to understand, and not expecting to be forgiven, not necessarily even wanting to be forgiven.

It was clear that Levi was expecting punishment, to lose everything he loved, because that was what had always happened to him, even in the Corps. He'd lost Isabel and Furlan, then his Special Operations Squad, then their replacements. He had expected to lose all his friends again, and now he expected to lose his freedom, even his life, for his actions. Some would have called him cowardly, fleeing the battle in Shiganshina. Erwin knew nothing could have proven Levi's bravery more than to risk almost everything he loved, in an attempt to save someone he thought was beyond saving, and to keep a promise that would have destroyed him.

"Kirstein confessed to me privately, on the way here, that he nearly killed himself when he was isolated from us. Apparently there's something about Ymir's scream when in Titan form that affects the nervous system adversely, perhaps even individual parts of the brain. You saw the universal loss of bladder and additional loss of bowel control in a Squad of hardened Scouts. Others of us were almost overwhelmed by fear, and feelings of disaster, to the point of temporary paralysis. Officially, I'd blame your decision on an affect of that Titan shifter ability, but none of this is going on the official mission record," Erwin stated.

Levi was staring at him, disbelief and hope in his face.

"If there even is an official record. I leafed through the journal that devastated Hange, not just the passage that upset her, but other portions. I don't know whether you caught the entire significance of what you read, but it appears Dr. Yeager was part of an insurrection plot against the King. When Hange got her father arrested for treason, she was apparently unaware that he was, in fact, in the process of committing treason."

Levi looked as shocked as Erwin had felt.

"Since I am apparently being accused of treason and insurrection, from what Lenz told me, it is quite possible that plot has been discovered, and I am either mistakenly believed to be involved or purposefully being made a sacrificial lamb," Erwin continued grimly.

"I've given it more thought, on the way here, and I'm not about to bring those books and journals anywhere near the Capital until I read them and understand what's going on. Added to that, apparently others within the Walls know a lot more about the shifters than we do. I think the entire Corps may be at risk, if whoever those people are realize we've made contact with the shifters, and have access to the information regarding the planned insurrection."

"You know I'll support you, no matter what, that if it's a choice between you and the King, it's you. And not only me. There are others within the Corps too, ready to stand with you, if it ever came time for a coup," Levi swore.

"I'm not out to depose the King, Levi," Erwin said wearily.

"Yeah, well maybe you should be. Because that fucker sure as hell hasn't been doing the job he was given, if the Titan shifters got turned against us, when they were supposed to be the ones helping to protect us," Levi accused bitterly.

"We'll see what those books and the shifters have to say. For now… you chose Arlert and Yeager over me. I know you had your reasons, that you were distraught, but… I watched you abandon me, when I needed you most. Hange was dead, Levi. You and Mike and Hange have always been… But you were gone. After all this time, you've still always been the one who finds trust so hard to give but… you betrayed me.

"I still love you, I can't help loving you, but I don't know that I'll ever be able to forgive you for that. And I'll always be afraid that when I most need you, you'll abandon me again," Erwin admitted, hating that he was showing that kind of vulnerability, especially now, that he was giving Levi even more power to hurt him.

"I know," Levi whispered, a look of hopelessness and loss on his face that made Erwin want to hold him, in spite of everything he'd just said.

"I knew that… even if you lived, you'd never… that… I wish I could swear I'd never betray you again, that I'd always pick you over anyone, that… but I can't. You're not my whole world, Erwin. You were once, after… after Furlan and Isabel… You were the one who encouraged me to risk it, to grow, to let my Squad in… and then when they were gone… I thought I was safe, that the only way left to hurt me was you. But Sasha, somehow, wormed her way in. Hell, Liam and Caitlin before her, only I didn't let them get as close. Even Sasha, really, until the brats. And now…

"I… I can't be like him. It can't be me against the world, fuck everyone else. What the hell is the point of saving the God damned world, if it's not for the people living in it? When the world went to shit, when we unleashed this damned Apocalyptic plague, we didn't just save armies of soldiers to fight. We saved men and women and children, families and communities. They're who we're fighting for. We didn't build a fortress, we built a City.

"It's been rotting from the inside, before ever being attacked from outside, but it's ours, and we need to protect it. I'd die for you, Erwin, you know that, but there are others I'd die for too, now. You've had Hange and Mike, plus your secret family, what's left of it. I have people too. That doesn't mean I love you less or put them over you. Next time, I might have to risk them dying instead, and I hate it. I hate being that vulnerable, knowing that I might be forced to choose between you again, between who I'll try to save. I know it won't end well. It never does. I keep waiting for the next pyre, but I've started living in between them, even knowing it will only hurt more.

"Shit, I'm babbling. I don't expect you to understand. I'm not sure** I** even understand. I just… Don't hate me. Or stop loving me. Or love me less. Don't give me another reason to hate myself. I need all of them too, but I can't do this without you, Erwin."

Erwin opened up his arms, and wrapped them around Levi. "OK," he said simply, acknowledging everything Levi had said. Because in spite of what he'd said, he knew he couldn't do this anymore without Levi, either.

0 0 0

Erwin still loved him. Levi couldn't believe Erwin still loved him, that he hadn't lost him. He'd damaged their relationship, but he hadn't destroyed it.

Reluctantly, he pulled away from Erwin's hug. "I need to know why Hoover and Braun are here, with you, after everything they've done. Why aren't they dead? You were supposed to blow the backs of their necks off, that's what the dynamite was for. What did I miss?"

Levi listened in disbelief as Erwin filled him in on the rest of the battle, and Marcel Braun's revelation about causing the plague in Shiganshina.

"Hoover and Braun sealed the breaches in Wall Maria and retook Shiganshina?" Levi echoed in shock. _Holy crap._

"Given the extenuating circumstances involved surrounding the loss of communications and then of Marcel Braun, in what appeared to be a breach in our Pact with them, both of which they took as declarations of war, and their assistance in the recent battle in Shiganshina, and here tonight, I've determined it is in the best interests of humanity to have them as our allies, instead of our enemies."

"They're guilty of treason. You don't have the authority to absolve them of that," Levi argued.

"They hadn't sworn allegiance to the King when they breached Wall Maria. As for Wall Rose and Trost, and their actions after becoming cadets and joining the Corps… It's in humanity's best interests to not prosecute them for those actions," Erwin argued.

"You're not just setting yourself up for charges of collusion with the enemy, you're going to be pitting yourself against Pixis and the entire Garrison, if you're not careful. Braun tortured and killed his man Randall. I don't care how good a strategist Pixis is, he's going to want them to pay for that," Levi argued.

"Levi, we cannot survive if the shifters remain our enemies. We need to make peace with them. I'm going to do everything in my power to see to that," Erwin replied.

"And what about Leonhart? She murdered dozens of our men. She murdered my entire Squad. Are you just going to let her walk away from all that?" Levi challenged, infuriated at the thought.

Erwin sighed. "Leonhart is a special case. From what they said, she is no longer sane, and what we've seen certainly bears that out. I'm not sure how we're going to handle her involvement," Erwin reluctantly stated. "Look, we're not going to solve any of this tonight. Right now, we need to get some sleep, those of us who can. Tomorrow is going to be filled with fact finding, both through discussion and those books of Yeager's. It's time we let Kirstein in here and join the rest of our men. For now, just keep away from the shifters. Don't start trouble. That's an order."

Levi winced mentally, not letting it show on his face. Erwin didn't give a damn what he thought about any of this. He would have, before Shiganshina. He'd have listened.

"Levi, this isn't about you. About us," Erwin argued, as if hearing his thoughts. "The truth is, we need the Titan shifters on our side. We couldn't have sealed the breaches in the Wall without them, or retaken Shiganshina, or even survived the battle there, or likely, the one tonight, with those three Aberrants. And every one of us is all but dead on our feet, and completely burnt out, physically, mentally and emotionally. We need to rest, so we can think clearly. I want you to get some sleep too, alright?"

He wasn't making it an order this time. Levi nodded, knowing it was a lie. There was no way in hell he was sleeping under the same roof as a bunch of murdering shifters. But he'd lie down, and rest his leg and lungs and ribs. Because the last thing he needed was to be unable to fight them, when they inevitably turned on them and tried to kill them.

"Good. We need to let Kirstein in here now. I'm sure he's anxious to be with Arlert," Erwin said and Levi nodded again.

They both schooled their features, and then opened the door and emerged from the room. Jean was standing impatiently just out of earshot of the room. "You can go inside now, Kirstein," Erwin stated.

"Thank you sir," Jean said in relief, hurrying past them.

The shifters in human form were busy clearing away the wreckage of the roof, under Hange's and Kearney's direction, and the others were arranging sleeping areas on the living room floor. Mikasa was keeping a wary eye on Hoover and Braun, darting glances and whispering to Connie and Sasha. There was a small pile of recovered clothes, some of what had been drying in the living room.

Levi coughed, as some of the dirt and dust from the debris settled in his throat, wincing as his still tender lungs and his ribs protested.

He startled when he felt a hand on his forehead, almost snapping Hange's wrist, before he realized it was her. He scowled at her.

"Good. You don't have a fever," she said, a measure of relief in her voice that made him frown.

"What, you're afraid the pneumonia's coming back?" he asked.

To his consternation, she nodded yes, but too softly for the others to hear said, "Let's talk outside," and ushered him to the door.

Anders and Bauer were on Titan watch, and after exchanging a few reassuring words with them, she spoke quietly to Levi.

"It's not the pneumonia I'm worried about, although that's a possibility too. I'm more concerned that our vaccinations are still effective. I heard from Springer that Marcel Braun was the one responsible for the plague in Shiganshina five-and-a-half years ago. He was worried that we might be at risk from it. I reassured him we should all be fine.

"It's likely Braun is still contagious, but fortunately the Corps and the rest of the military was all inoculated after the outbreak in Shiganshina, although the plague began and ended there. There weren't any new cases after that – there apparently weren't any other carriers. Fortunately, the refined vaccine was added to the standard series given to every cadet, so the 104thshould also be alright, thought they were still civilians at the time of the outbreak."

"I need you to keep an eye on everyone. Let me and Erwin know if you see any symptoms," Levi instructed.

"I will. Meanwhile, how do you feel? And don't say, 'I'm fine.' I need to know the truth," Hange said.

"It's hard to catch my breath with the dust in there. I still feel the walk up here and the battle, in Shiganshina, on the trail, and here. I was able to fight, but managed to bang myself up a bit more. My leg and ribs and lungs all hurt," Levi admitted honestly.

"I want you to get some sleep. I'll stand guard over you and if any of them try anything, I'll shift and rip them apart. I won't let them hurt you, or Erwin, or your brats. Get some sleep, Levi," she urged.

Somehow, it was easier to take from Hange. Maybe because she hadn't tried to order him.

He nodded tiredly, trusting Hange to keep him safe, and the two of them headed back into the cabin.


	43. Chapter 43 - A Strange Kind of Hell Rev

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 43 – A Strange Kind of Hell Revisited

_Warm. Soft. Strong. _Jasmine and lavender and cedar. Armin burrowed deeper under the soft covers, snuggling against the familiar, strong, warm body at his side, even as his brow creased in confusion. The scents were wrong. They didn't fit the warmth under his arm, pressed against him.

He opened his eyes cautiously, to a semi-bright room, sunlight fighting to stream through the thick curtain at the window, the faint smell of beeswax and smoke, from the guttering flame of a single candle over Jean's bare shoulder that burnt out as he watched, sending a curling, trailing wisp of smoke into the air.

Armin smiled as he looked up into Jean's sleeping face, then frowned at the scowl between his lover's brows, and frowned further at the unfamiliar wooden ceiling. Planks of wood, instead of an upper bunk, and a too wide bed._ Not the barracks._ His eyes widened. And a quilt: the deep, pleasant cedar scent was coming from the soft quilt. The lavender and jasmine were coming from… _ Is this…? Why am I wearing a dress? _

He blushed furiously, even as he looked at Jean, to see what he was wearing and… _Nothing._ Armin bit his lip. Jean wasn't wearing anything, not even underwear. Which made it incredibly easy to see another distinctive bit of proof that it was morning.

Armin tore his eyes away from Jean's groin and tried to look around curiously, without waking Jean. _Are we in an inn?_

His eyes opened wide in shock and confusion. _This looks… like Mikasa's parents' room?_

He looked up again, to make sure it was Jean he was sleeping with, not Levi.

It was definitely Jean. But Jean hadn't been here in Mikasa's cabin with them.

_Am I dreaming? Where were…_? His eyes widened. _Shiganshina. We were in Shiganshina. Eren's basement. Marcel. The Titans, so many and they… Hange! Oh God! They ate…! Mikasa! She… Eren..._ **"NO!"** Armin screamed, pushing away from the illusion of Jean.

The illusion fell to the floor with a loud thud and curses, yanking the quilt off with him. Then Jean leapt to his feet wild-eyed, and panicked looking, but then his face totally changed. He was looking at Armin like he was crazy, or dangerous, his hands out as if to calm him, as if he was real, as if any of this was real.

"Oh God, I'm dead," Armin whispered. He suddenly understood what Levi had meant, when he told him when he woke up in Mikasa's old bedroom when he should have been dead that he'd thought he'd been in a strange kind of hell. Armin had thought it was funny, that he'd think that, but it wasn't funny anymore, now that he was dead.

"Armin, it's alright, it's OK, you're safe, it's only me," Jean assured him.

"Jean, what the fuck!" an angry voice yelled from outside the door, as the knob rattled.

_Levi?_

"Captain, don't come in! Just let me calm him down," Jean called back, his voice an odd mix of calm laid over desperation.

Armin looked from the locked door, to Jean, biting his lip. _Maybe he I'm not completely dead yet? Maybe I have to choose? To stay here, with Jean, or go to the door? Like heading into the light._ It was supposed to be bad, heading for the light. You'd be dead then. But the only light was the sunlight outside the window.

"Armin, you're not dead. You're alright. You're safe. You're… oh my God, you actually spoke! You can talk," Jean said, as if it was something wonderful.

_Am I not supposed to be able to talk here? Is that part of hell's punishment, that you can't talk? Or just for me, because of the men I murdered?_

"Armin? Do you know who I am? It's me, Jean," he soothed.

Armin nodded, not sure what to say, why Jean was acting so crazy.

"You're not afraid of me, right?" Jean prodded.

_Am I supposed to be? You're acting kind of weird. _Armin stayed silent and watched him warily.

"Kirstein, if you don't let me know what the fuck is going on, I'm going to pick this damned lock, and I swear, if I find out Armin's fine and the two of you are just in their fucking while the rest of us are out here freaking out I'm going to kick the shit out of you," Levi threatened.

"And if you don't give me five fucking minutes to try to see if he's OK and if he can speak again, I'm going to feed you to Hans and Otto!" Jean yelled back, while keeping his eyes on Armin and keeping his hands out in a calming gesture.

Armin would have laughed, if he wasn't so worried and confused. "Jean, what's going on?"

"Oh my God. Armin, you're OK?" Jean asked breathlessly.

Armin looked down at himself suspiciously, half expecting to find something missing. And then he remembered again, Mikasa, pale as a ghost, her empty arm socket pouring blood and Eren...

"Oh God! Eren!" Armin cried, scrambling off the bed, running to the window, yanking aside the curtain, expecting to see a giant, glowing green eye staring back in at him.

"Armin, calm down! It's alright. Eren's not going to hurt anyone," Jean soothed.

Armin shook his head wildly. "You didn't see, you weren't there, you didn't see… Oh my God. You weren't there. You never came back. And now you're here and… Am I dead?" Armin whispered, pulling back from the window, the light. Trees, there were trees outside. _Would there be trees in hell? _He couldn't be in heaven, could he? He was a murderer.

"Armin, you keep asking that. You're not dead, OK? You're fine. Everything's alright, you're…" Jean soothed.

"I'm not fine! Everything's not fine! How can it be fine when you were gone and Hange's dead and Eren ate Mikasa and grabbed me and now you and I are both dead!" Armin shrilled.

The door flew open with a bang that made Armin jump. Levi ran into the room, as fast as a severely limping man could. Levi was fully dressed, in uniform, with his maneuver gear, and even his scabbards. _Shouldn't he be naked, too? Or in a dress, like me?_

"Armin, it's alright! Calm down, brat. Damn it, you fucked this all up, Jean, except at least he's talking now, and maybe can understand us. Erwin, get in here! Help me explain it to him so I don't fuck it up!" Levi roared.

Erwin came into the room. Thankfully, he was dressed too.

"What's going on? Is this really MMM…" Armin choked on Mikasa's name. _Is it really her house, and not hell?_

"Shit, fuck, he's doing it again," Levi cursed. "Just calm down and breathe, brat. Don't forget how to speak, OK? Don't go away again. Just keep talking to us, alright, so we can explain everything to you," Levi urged desperately, holding his hands out the same way as Jean, like he was a frightened animal.

"Why do you all keep talking to me like that?" Armin demanded, fear and confusion giving way to anger. "Like I'm a scared little kid, or a wild animal, like I'm broken?"

"Because you were, and we're afraid if we say the wrong thing you're going to break again, and we're trying not to fuck this up," Levi replied, obviously forcing his voice to be calm and level.

"The battle and what happened after it understandably traumatized you, Arlert, but we're not sure what the trigger was that made you shut down. Why don't you just sit down on the bed, and try to stay calm, and we'll explain everything that happened?" Erwin suggested. "Levi, Kirstein, now that he's able to speak, maybe it would be best if you wait outside with the others, while I talk to him."

"Is that OK with you, Armin? Do you want me or Levi or both of us to wait outside?" Jean asked.

"I think I want you in here, with me, but… maybe wrapped in the quilt? Because you're not dressed, and everyone else is, and that's kind of strange," Armin said unsurely.

"Why aren't you wearing your clothes? You had a change in your pack," Levi criticized.

"Yeah, well, the other times Armin and I slept together I wasn't wearing any, so I thought it would be less weird if I was naked. I didn't expect the two of you to be in here," Jean mumbled self consciously, as he picked up his briefs and stepped into them, and then pulled on his shirt and began buttoning it.

Somehow the mundane act was calming, and Armin started to feel a little less weird, like things were a little less surreal, although he still had no idea what they were doing here, or what everyone thought was wrong with him.

Armin bit his lip. "When you said 'everyone', who did you mean? Is… is Sasha alright? Did Bauer come back, too? Did… who else did we lose?" he asked, swallowing hard, not wanting to hear, but needing to know.

"Everyone's here, safe. No one died. Reiner, Bertolt, Ymir, Krista and Marcel are even here with us, too," Jean said, as he pulled on his socks.

"So… everyone else. And… what about…? You found me, so you must have found… Is… is Eren dead?" Armin whispered, feeling his eyes flood with tears at the thought of Eren being killed by them, but knowing they would have done it.

And then Jean's arms were around him, holding him, and he hugged Jean back tightly.

"No Armin. Eren's still alive. No one's going to hurt him. We know you think he did something awful, but…" Jean began.

Armin shook his head wildly, trying to pull away. Jean was making it sound like Eren hadn't eaten Mikasa, but he knew Eren had, he'd seen him do it and… _Oh God. Mikasa is dead, and Eren ate her._

"Armin, listen to me. I know you're going to find this hard to believe, but Mikasa isn't dead. She's a Titan shifter," Jean said in a rush. "Eren wasn't trying to hurt her when he ate her, he was trying to save her, because she's just like him, because of Dr. Yeager, or maybe just because of having sex with Eren, we're not sure about that part, but she turned into a Titan and regrew her arm, just like Eren, and she's out in the living room right now, with Eren, because Han… fuck, shit, because we were afraid if you saw her you'd lose your mind and you were already pretty… Yesterday you were… You couldn't talk and didn't really know who Levi or Ha… who Levi was and… If it won't freak you out, you can see Mikasa, so you believe me, but if you're going to start screaming or thinking you're dead again, then she can just wait there until you're ready."

Armin blinked, trying to process everything Jean had said. He didn't want to believe it, because if this was a dream, or a nightmare, if he woke up and Mikasa was still dead, but… He pushed out of Jean's arms and ran for the door, half expecting for them to tackle him, or the walls to disappear, or…

He flung open the door, to a sea of faces, even as he heard Levi yell from behind him, "Shit, Zoe, hide! We didn't have a chance to tell him about you yet!"

Armin's eyes froze on Eren and Mikasa. They were standing there, alive and whole, holding each other, as if Eren never… He ran to them, tears streaming down his face, and dove into them, wrapping his arms around them, half expecting them to vanish like smoke, but instead, they wrapped their arms around him, hugging him back.

"Thank God, you're OK! I'm so sorry, Armin, I never meant to scare you like that," Eren apologized, talking into his hair.

"You must have been so afraid. It must have been terrifying seeing me coming out of Eren. That must have been why… Are you OK? Can you talk?" Mikasa asked, choking on the words.

Armin nodded wordlessly, crying too hard to say anything.

"Not bad for a trio of amateurs," a familiar but impossible voice said happily, and Armin froze. Belatedly, Levi's warning processed, as he turned around, looking for Hange.

"Oh my God. You're alive too? But that means you're… Annie's blood? From when you resuscitated her?" Armin asked, staring at her in awe.

She grinned, her eyes suspiciously bright, and ran up to him, and hugged him, the way she had in her lab. "Thank God. When you… It was so wrong to… But you figured it out without… I missed you," she finally said, hugging him more tightly.

"Sorry, but I need one too," Jean said, and then he was pulling Armin towards him and embracing him.

0 0 0

"He's OK," Levi said, his voice rough, as he stood by the bedroom door, on the outside looking in.

"Come on," Erwin said, pulling Levi over to his embracing subordinates. "Arlert, hug Levi. That's an order."

Armin jumped in surprise and then started laughing, and crying, and hugged Levi obediently.

Levi clung to Armin, just long enough to assure himself he was OK, before letting go and hugging Erwin. "Thanks. I needed that."

"I know. Now that the morning's drama is concluding, let's get everyone fed. It looks like we're having one more for breakfast," Erwin said, not sounding at all put out, as he steered Levi towards the kitchen.

"I'll join you in a minute," Levi said, as he stopped by Anders and Bauer, and Erwin nodded and entered the kitchen.

"Anders, Bauer, are you alright?" Levi asked quietly.

The two men nodded.

"Yes sir. Thank you. Just thinking about Mitchell. Wondering how he's doing. If he's ever going to have a morning like this one," Bauer said gruffly.

"I hope he does. We're doing all we can to see to it. Why don't you both help me and Erwin in the kitchen? It will help us get breakfast ready faster," Levi urged.

"Thank you, sir," Anders replied, and Bauer nodded, both men obviously welcoming the distraction.


	44. Chapter 44 - Oath to the Corps and King

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Since I completed my D. Gray-Man/Karneval story last week, I've posted the first chapter of a new **_**Soul Eater**_** story today, and will be updating every Thursday, summary below, in case any of you are interested:**

**Deception at Death's Door  
When a straightforward mission for Death the Kid, Liz and Patty becomes a nightmare and Kid is abducted, the DWMA scrambles to save him. All evidence points to Mifune and the Witch Angela as the culprits. Black*Star and Tsubaki have doubts, but Soul and Maka intend to show no mercy. POV alternates. Cast also includes Lord Death, Stein, Nygus, Spirit and Giriko. Hurt/comfort, drama.**

Chapter 44 – Oath to the Corps and King

Erwin, Levi, Anders and Bauer prepared breakfast for the others from the supplies they'd brought with them, and everyone ate and discussed their plans. Erwin recommended they repair the house and stay for at least one more day, and preferably longer, to ensure Armin was sufficiently recovered, to gain more intel from the Titan shifters, and to read the books and journals and learn about the plot against the King.

Jean was glued to Armin's side, whispering assurances to him, as Armin kept darting glances at Hoover and Braun. Levi knew how the kid felt. He still couldn't believe the traitors to humanity were somehow suddenly working with them. Even with his sword scabbards on, Levi felt naked without his concealed knives, all of which were now buried in the collapsed bedroom. He hoped to reclaim them, since they'd be repairing the fallen roof, and space in the small house was at a premium.

Connie was eying both the dogs and Hoover and Braun with suspicion and anger, for his own trauma and Sasha's, and Jean was sending dark looks Eren's way, their new found friendship apparently strained, for similar reasons concerning Armin, or maybe partly from jealousy, because of how Armin kept looking towards Mikasa and Eren. Neither Connie nor Jean were eating.

"We could split into two groups, and have some of us stay in the smokehouse cave," Mikasa suggested discreetly to Levi, as usual, somehow guessing his thoughts. "Maybe Connie and Sasha, Jean and Armin would feel more secure in there."

Erwin overheard and shook his head. "For the sake of trust, as well as safety, we need to stay together."

"Erwin's right. We can't afford to be at odds with one another out here, more than we already are," Levi agreed, but because he didn't want to split their forces, when the shifters were so numerous, and a potential threat. Hoover, the two Brauns, Ymir, Lenz and the dogs were seated on the floor at one end of the truncated living room, and the rest of them on the other, though there was a distinct amount of space between the others and Eren, Mikasa and Hange. Lenz was the only one in her group eating, further accenting the differences. Reiner Braun had told Erwin they shouldn't waste their supplies on them, since they didn't need to eat to live, though he'd tried to get Marcel Braun to eat with Lenz, obviously protective of and still worried about his nephew, though the younger Braun appeared fully recovered from his mummification.

Levi cursed as Jean stood and strode over to the Titan shifters, his hands conspicuously on his sword hilts. "Kirstein," both he and Erwin said simultaneously, as they hurried to intervene, even as Reiner Braun rose and stepped protectively in front of his group, ordering the growling and bristling dogs to heel.

"You want something, Jean?" Braun challenged, holding out a hand towards Levi and Erwin, in a clear effort to prevent them from interfering, and one behind him, to prevent his fellow shifters and Lenz from interfering as well.

"The truth," Jean replied, his voice hoarse. "I want to know about Marco. I want to know if Annie killed him. Or left him to die. Because it's her fault he's dead, isn't it?"

_Fuck. Shit._ He should have realized Jean would be thinking about Bott, wanting revenge for him.

"You already know the answer to that, Jean. Annie gave the order, but it's all our faults. We breached Wall Rose and let the Titans inside. We're all guilty. Every soldier and civilian we lost that day, that's all on our heads," Braun admitted, his voice grim and tired, but unapologetic.

Jean's fists clenched convulsively on his sword hilts. "That's not what I meant. I know you're all ultimately responsible for Thomas, Nac, Lylius, Mina's and everyone's deaths. But Marco was different. Annie had his maneuver gear. And it wasn't half eaten, destroyed. Which means, she took it off of him **before** he was bitten. So what I want… what I **need** to know is: Did she kill him?"

Jean let go of the swords and grabbed Braun by the shirt collar instead. "Did she murder him in cold blood with her own two hands? Or did she knock him out and leave him to get eaten? Did she hit him from behind? Or did she look him in the eyes? Is she the one who… who bit him in half? Was… was he unaware or… was he terrified? In pain? Did… did he suffer? Did he know?"

Braun swallowed and looked Jean in the eye, as almost everyone in the room held their breaths. "We don't know. We didn't know she was planning to take his gear. We don't even know if it **was** a plan. She might have found him unconscious and gotten the inspiration to take his gear because of it, left him there instead of carrying him to safety. He might have been hit or fallen or something and already been dead. Or she might have attacked him from behind, so he wouldn't see her, so if he lived through it, he wouldn't know it was her. Or she might have stared him in the eye and gutted him without flinching. Or laughed in his face as she killed him. She was capable of any of those at that point, and I honest to God don't know, Jean.

"We'd been in denial before, about how bad she was, how far gone. Even when she ordered us to breach Wall Maria, Bertolt and me, we didn't hesitate, didn't think. We just… we hurt so much. For me, it was fury, revenge. For Bertie… he was just… different. Dead inside, you know? But Annie… Honest to God, that crazy bitch is capable of anything, now. After Trost… Seeing Eren was suddenly a shifter too brought me and Bertie back. We needed to question him, learn why. We knew it had to be because of Marcel. But Annie… she saw Yeager Titan as a threat, a challenge. I swear she just wanted the chance to fight him, to kick his ass, to prove she was better, stronger.

"She was always like that. Because of her father, General Robert Leonhart. He taught her to fight when she was a little kid. He was a ruthless fucker. He used to beat the crap out of her, day after day. 'Make me proud, Annabelle.' Tch. She never did. You can't make someone with unreasonable expectations and impossible goals proud of you. She was always a little out there, a little harder than the rest of us. But she was never completely soulless and batshit crazy until Marcel disappeared. Until we thought he was dead.

"We tried to do what we could the day we took out Wall Rose, to see that the rest of you survived our attack on Trost. We didn't give a rat's ass about the rest of those fuckers in that City, the civilians or the Garrison, but we didn't want any of you, the 104th, to die. We'd worked with you, ate with you, trained with you, slept with you. We knew there'd be casualties. There are always acceptable losses in war, and we were at war. From where we stood, you'd launched a sneak attack. You'd broken the Pact and killed Marcel. We should have hated all of you.

"But shit, Jean, we're still human. We still feel. Marco, he was a good soldier, but a better human being. He was sweet and nice and kind, in a world that is cold and hard and cruel. He reminded me a lot of Marcel, so much so that I couldn't bear to talk to the guy. But I would have protected him with my life, because of it. I wouldn't have let Annie hurt him. The world needs more people like him and Marcel, and less of me and Annie. I'm sorry, Jean, but only Annie and Marco know what happened to him. And maybe not even him, and he's dead," Braun said gently.

Jean's shoulders slumped, all the fury and tension vanishing, and he let go of Braun and nodded, blatantly defeated.

"Anyone else need to vent? Want to take a number and get in line for your pound of flesh, for revenge for what we did?" Braun challenged. "Although I'll tell you, vengeance isn't all it's cracked up to be. You think seeing the faces of every person you ever killed on a mission every night is hell? Or that becoming a Titan and living on the Outside alternately hiding from them and fighting them for a century is hell? Try living after wiping out the people you sacrificed your soul and that century of your life for. Honest to God, there's nothing worse that you can do to any of us than what we're already doing to ourselves," Braun admitted.

Kearney stood then and headed over to the shifters and Levi stood ready to protect him, if need be. Kearney was wearing his claw arms, not his sword arms, which made him all the more vulnerable.

"My name is Captain Connell Kearney, officially retired, but unofficially, still working for the Corps as an equipment designer and mechanical technician. My hands might be gone, but my mind's still sharp as ever, and I make do with these," he said, holding up his clawed hands. "My little brother Sean's family lived in Shiganshina: him, his wife, Rain, and their daughter, Deirdre, my niece. I was visiting them, the day you took down Wall Maria."

Braun stiffened, his hands fisting at his sides, not looking like he was about to punch Kearney, but like he was steeling himself against his words, as if they would rain down upon him like physical blows, and his nephew and Hoover stood behind him, in silent support.

"She was a wee little thing, my niece, only just turning seven. I was watching her, while my brother and sister-in-law went visiting the Thompsons, down the road, inviting the eldest, Catherine, to a surprise birthday party for Deirdre. And then the Wall fell, and the whole world went to hell.

"Deirdre and I were playing in her bedroom in the back, so at first, we didn't realize what was happening, until a giant foot came through the roof in the hallway outside her room. I dove through the bedroom window with Deirdre in my arms, just before the rest of the roof caved in. The Titan that did it turned to eat us, and I pushed Deirdre into what remained of the back doorway and used my maneuver gear and swords – thanks be to God I was wearing them – for my first and only Titan kill. I didn't even see the second of those monsters, until Deirdre screamed."

Braun was visibly trembling, his fists clenches so tightly that blood was dripping onto the floor from his nails cutting into his palms.

"I dove over to her and chopped off the hand that was reaching for her. The monster returned the favor and bit off me arms," Kearney said with a shudder, again holding up his clawed prosthetics for emphasis. Then he stiffened his spine and continued. "By all rights, I should have been dead. But Sean and Rain came running, both of them carrying swords; they told me later they'd scavenged them off Garrison soldiers. And the two of them working together somehow killed the beast that ate my arms.

"She was a gentle one, my sister-in-law, a nurse, before she became a mother, and my brother the same, he was a doctor. They met in the hospital where they worked. But that day, covered head to toe in the blood steaming off of them, they were avenging angels. It's thanks to them I'm still alive, their medical skill, as well as their bravery. Thankfully, the four of us lived.

"But the Thompsons didn't. Little Rose and Mary and Catherine didn't. The sisters were 2, 4 and 7, when they died. The Donahues and their bairns died too. Hundreds of their friends and neighbors died, and thousands were left homeless, hundreds of thousands, by the end of it. But you didn't just take lives and homes. You took childhoods and futures. Limbs. Families. Lives. Hope.

"Personally, I was content knowing I traded my arms for my niece's life. I could have run, or flown, I had my gear, after all. I could have fled. But I'd not have been able to call myself a man, had I saved myself and let her perish. Family can drive a man to do foolish and brave things. Grief can drive a man to do worse.

"I've seen a lot of grief, these past five years. I never once suspected that grief was at the heart of this madness, that the destruction of Wall Maria was an act of revenge. I can't ever forgive you, for what you've done. But I can understand it.

"If it was Deirdre or Rain or Sean that was missing, and I thought them dead… it's easy to say you'd never fall so far, but even angels fall to become demons, even saints can become sinners. Vengeance cries out for vengeance, and breeds only more hatred and grief. That's no way to live. So I'm offering you my hand, such as it is, because there's been far too much death already," Kearney said, holding out his right clawed hand.

Braun stared at him, wide-eyed, and then at the claw, and then at his own fist, which he slowly unfurled. "It's covered in blood," he whispered, staring at the bloody crescents in his palm.

"Aye, lad, that it is, and your soul is drenched in it," Kearney agreed, his hand not wavering.

Braun wiped his hand on his pants and then took Kearney's clawed hand and shook it, and the collectively held breaths were shakily released. And then were held again, as Eren stepped forward, threatening to shatter the tenuous peace.

"My mother was killed, the day Shiganshina fell," Eren said bluntly. "A boulder you kicked, Bertolt, turned our home into a weapon that crushed her legs. A Titan you let in ate her in front of my eyes."

Hoover let out a little moan, and Marcel Braun embraced him, looking at Eren not in anger, but in grief and guilt. Reiner Braun, though, was glaring at Eren.

"But that entire time, your husband, Reiner's nephew, was locked in a coffin, buried alive in our basement. If that had been Mikasa, who'd gone missing, or Armin, if I was sure they were dead, murdered… I think I would have kicked the shit out of Wall Maria too. Especially, having that kind of power. I can't forgive any of you, but like Kearney, I understand it. And my father is just as guilty as you are, for what happened, if not more so, from what Marcel said.

"There was a letter Marcel wrote, to explain to you all what happened. If my father had seen that delivered to you… If we find it amongst the books and papers we packed… But he might have delivered it to the King. Or the Garrison. Or the MPs. You said the King knew Trost would happen, that Wall Rose would fall, and did nothing to prevent it. I think the damned King is just as guilty.

"I want to know everything you haven't told us. I want you to work with us, to try to make this right, to fix it as best as we can, after everything that's happened. I'm sick of all the death, all the killing. I don't want anyone else to die. And I want you to help me protect Mikasa. Now that she's a shifter, too, those fuckers who wanted to dissect me will come after her, if they find out. I need to keep her safe." And he held out his hand to Hoover.

"You're our brother and she's our sister now. Of course we'll keep her safe. We'll protect you, too. From the MPs and anyone else who tries to harm you. Even from Annie, if we have to," Hoover said solemnly as he shook Eren's hand.

"And I know it's worthless, but I'm truly, sorry, Eren," Bertolt apologized. "For your mother and everyone else I killed. I can never atone for it, in this life or what comes after, but I'll spend the rest of my life doing what I can. We've already retaken Shiganshina and sealed the two breaches in Wall Maria. Once all the intrigue is over, the four of us are going to kill all the Titans between Wall Rose and Wall Maria, so people can resettle in the outer ring again. And afterwards, we plan to go back outside and continue our mission, killing all the Titans we can, so one day, you can open the Gates for good."

Anders and Bauer strode up to Hoover and Braun, and Levi tensed as he saw their hands were on their sword hilts, though the swords weren't bladed.

"No one's mentioned it yet, so we figured we should," Bauer stated, his voice cold and hard. "You shifters didn't just betray humanity in Shiganshina and Trost. You betrayed the Corps there. But also, you betrayed us on our last mission. It ended in a carefully orchestrated precisely executed ambush. We were surrounded on all four sides by Titans. Only the fantastic luck of the existence and placement of those Titan traps and the bravery of my Squad, Captain Levi's Squad, at the cost of Morgan and Gianapolis, kept the entire Corps from being eradicated in a single fell swoop. Do you really expect us to make peace with you after that?"

_Shit. Fuck._ Levi couldn't believe he hadn't been the one to bring that up, but he was still reeling from everything else he'd just heard.

Braun and Hoover were frowning and shaking their heads. "That wasn't us. We didn't plan that ambush, or know about it in advance. Do you really think we would have ridden out with you that day, if we'd known? We'd have pretended to be sick or faked a fight and been locked in the stockade or something. Why would we risk our carefully constructed cover?

"Think about it. During that attack, at no time did we assume our Titan forms. And we helped save Sasha, Connie, Jean, Eren, Mikasa, Armin, everyone in the 104th, but not only them. Every Scout we saw in danger, we tried to save. We helped save Squad Leader Zacharius and the other wounded that we loaded onto those wagons."

"If it wasn't you, then who betrayed us? Who else would be able to control the Titans, to get them to attack us like that?" Bauer pressed.

"Tch. You think we can control the Titans? We wish. The only reason the Titan's attacked when Ice Queen, I mean, Major Leonhart's Titan form, attacked the previous mission, was because they smelled her and followed her, because they wanted to eat her. One of us would have had to lead in a group of them from each of four directions, and manage to have them all converge simultaneously. So…

"Shit. Yeah, I guess if Bertolt, Ymir and I each led a group to you, and Krista maybe somehow got another bunch to follow her… Not that Ymir would ever let Krista endanger herself like that. Maybe that special soap that Squad Leader Hange was supposed to have invented? Although from what we can tell, that's bullshit. But something like that? Fuck. This is going to drive me nuts," Braun said, sounding genuinely baffled.

Hoover also looked stumped, as did Ymir and Lenz. They could have been acting, of course, only what Braun said made too much sense.

"Crap. That means there might be another one of us, a shifter, inside the Walls, someone we don't know about, with his or her own agenda. Maybe even working for that fucker King Franz, because from what we've seen, the Corps and Commander Pixis's Special Forces are the greatest potential threat to his continued rule. That is, assuming Pixis wasn't behind the ambush. Because we couldn't help but notice how he's extended his power base, by filling the depleted ranks of the Corps with his hand-picked men," Braun said grimly.

"Commander Pixis isn't like that. He's an honorable man. All his men are. He'd never do something so horrible. I think you just want to pit us against him, because you know that he'll want justice for what you did to Randall," Armin accused, storming up, looking both furious and grief stricken. "You tortured him to death. He came because of me, because I sent a message to Commander Pixis, because I needed help protecting someone, and he came, and you followed him, and hunted him, and captured him and tortured him to death.

"You keep saying you're still human, even though you're shifters, but you're not, not the two of you. What you did to him… that's not something a person can do and still claim to be a human. You're a monster, whether or not you have the power to shift into the form of one." Armin was shaking, his hands on his sword hilts, trembling with emotion. The entire room was tense, awaiting Braun's response.

"You're right," Braun admitted. "But I was a monster long before I ever gained the power to look like one. Randall… he's not the first person I ever tortured for information on a mission. But he's the first one who wouldn't break, no matter what I did. Not until I shifted, and pretended I was going to eat him. Then I broke him. I learned what we needed, and then I killed him, quick and clean, just like always.

"I'm not like some of those sick fuckers we used to team with, ones who actually enjoyed interrogations and torture, ones who used to call it 'playing' and refer to our targets as 'toys'. You'd think after surviving what I did in the War, I'd be used to it by now, right? Immune? Only it doesn't work that way. Yeah, I shifted, and I broke him. But the ironic little twist is, this time I broke myself too.

"I haven't been able to close my eyes since I killed him. I haven't been able to eat, either. Or drink, not even water. If I was human, I'd already be dead. Fuck, if it wasn't for having to protect Bertolt, needing to keep him safe, but also, keeping him from ever having to do something like that… But he's got Marcel back now, to protect him, and Ymir, to keep them both safe.

"You thought I was being all fucking noble before, when I offered myself as a scapegoat? The truth is, I'm done. I've got a one way ticket to hell, and I'm ready to hop on board for the ride. So yeah, I get that you and Pixis want your pound of flesh. You can barbeque all 245 pounds on a pyre. Go ahead and burn me alive. Because I refuse to be like the Major, to live the rest of my life as a monster, and I'm shit all out of options now."

"Don't say that, Reiner! I don't care what you've done. This is my fault," Marcel claimed. "I brought the plague into Shiganshina, and you destroyed it because I disappeared. In spite of being shifters, we're only human. We make mistakes, just like anyone else. And yeah, we made some Titan sized ones. But how will either of our deaths make that right? What will it accomplish?"

"Arlert, I know Randall was a friend, or at least, a strong acquaintance. I know you feel guilty for bringing him to the base, to help Levi. But what you need to remember is, you did help Levi," Erwin said intently. "Randall's mission mattered. His life mattered. And he kept his honor to the end. No one expects a man faced with a Titan, especially one who's never faced one before, to be fearless. It would have been better if Hoover and Braun had found some other option, but in their position, surrounded by what they perceived to be enemies on all sides, they were desperate. Desperation and grief both lead people to making the wrong choices. But they've been helping us, now. And frankly, we need that help, if there's another enemy out there whose identity is a mystery to us. And perhaps more than one.

"We still don't know Schiffer's motivation for poisoning the Corps. It might have been similar to the man who put the bounty on Mikasa's head or the one who shot at me, revenge for personal loss, for greed or grief, or it might be someone employed by whoever set that ambush. And then there's the Military Police under Dok, and the individual from the roof whose name I won't speak, and perhaps even the King. I'm not suggesting you shake hands with Hoover and Braun, but I am ordering you to work beside them unless I tell you otherwise. Understood?" Erwin asked.

"Yes sir. I'll work with them for as long as you order me to," Armin agreed stiffly, after glaring at Hoover and Braun one more time.

"Excellent. Are there any others with anything to say?" Erwin challenged.

Everyone else held their tongues.

"Alright then." Erwin strode forward and held out his hand to Braun. "To a renewed alliance between the rest of humanity and the Titan shifters."

"To an alliance between us and the Corps, whether or not you are at its head. The rest depends upon what we read in those books and what Krista has to tell us about the charges against you," the elder Braun challenged, holding his hand a few centimeters from Erwin's.

"Agreed," Erwin said, closing the distance and shaking it, and then shaking Hoover's, Ymir's, Marcel Braun's and Lenz's, for good measure.

"Now then. I think it's high time we hear what Krista and then those books have to say," Braun challenged.

Lenz looked at Erwin and bit her lip. "I'm sorry, but I need to tell the Commander in private. For his safety," Krista was quick to add, hands raised in appeasement.

Ymir shook her head. "As his men, the Corps has the right to know the reason we were poisoned, that we were all ambushed on our last mission. It's pretty apparent to the two of us that both the poisoning and the ambush preceding it were sloppy and desperate attempts to assassinate you, Commander Edward Reiss. Because as Duke Reiss's sole surviving child, you are second in line to the throne, after your father the Duke. Conveniently, all your legitimate cousins who might have challenged you are now dead. Only the two bastards remain alive, you and your cousin Historia."

Levi tensed, ready to defend Erwin from attack, from anyone and everyone.

The momentary fury and fear on Erwin's face at the public exposure of his secret turned to shocked consternation and hope. "Historia is still alive? Do you know where she is? Is she safe?"

Lenz looked up at him, taking what appeared to be a bracing breath. "Considering I'm fourth in line to the throne, I'm about as safe as you are, Eddie," she whispered almost breathlessly.

Now Erwin looked as thunderstruck as the rest of everyone, as he studied her face intently. "Hista? Oh my God. It really is you, isn't it?" he asked in shock.

She nodded, her eyes suddenly bright with tears, as she tentatively and hesitantly held out her arms. After only a moment's hesitation, Erwin embraced her. "Why didn't you tell me? Reveal yourself to me before this?"

"Because I thought you killed them. My half-brothers and half-sisters. They're the assassinations I was sent to investigate you for."

Understanding lit Erwin's eyes. "You're working for the Captain of the First Interior Squad, aren't you?" he accused, refraining from saying Kenny's name, describing his position instead.

She nodded guiltily.

"He said he'd protect Historia, if we helped him prove the charges against you," Ymir explained.

And suddenly Levi was seeing red. Because Kenny knew Erwin hadn't killed the Reiss family. Kenny was the one who'd murdered them, and the fact that Kenny was framing Erwin for his own crime, knowing Erwin would be hanged for it, enraged him. The knowledge that Kenny knew full well there was a far greater threat to the throne, an heir with a much stronger claim and an unparalleled hatred for the cowardly King, Franz's own fucking son, in spite of what that lying asshole claimed, infuriated him.

"That lying sack of shit is the fucker who did it," Levi snapped, throwing caution to the winds. _Fuck keeping secrets. I'm done. That asshole Kenny needs to burn._ "Military Police First Interior Squad Captain Kenny Ackerman killed the Reiss heirs. He's also the fucking Numbers Killer. The same organization he decimated by torturing and murdering a hundred of their men embraced him as one of their top people. And no matter what he might have told you, Kenny Ackerman is **not **my father."

He turned to Erwin. "I'm sorry to burst your bubble, Erwin, but you're not second in line to the throne, you're third. Your father, Duke Reiss, is second. Garrison Commander Dorotheos Pixis's cousin, King Franz's formerly acknowledged illegitimate son, Levi Papadreaos, is first in line, no matter what the slimy, cowardly fucker wearing the crown now believes.

"I'm through hiding. I never wanted that asshole's goddamned throne, but after the way he fucked up, not just my mother's life and mine, but knowing now that the attack on Wall Rose was his fault, that maybe even the attack on Wall Maria was, depending upon whether he knew about Marcel Braun's letter, I think it's long past time we staged that fucking coup my fucking father lives in terror of and so richly deserves."

He turned away from Erwin's stunned face to Ymir and the rest of the shifters. "So if you want justice, feel free to step on both Kenny Ackerman and King Rudolf Franz, or bash their brains against the nearest wall, the next time you see them, because they've both played you all for idiots. Or you can just stay out of my way and let me take care of it. Because they started this latest Titan war, but I'm going to finish it."

Levi's heart was racing, as he fought the overwhelming urge to look over his shoulder for Kenny, for agents of the King, knowing he'd just signed his own death warrant, not only by inciting revolution and swearing to assassinate the King, but for betraying Kenny's secrets. But he was through hiding and dancing to those bastard's sick tunes.

Everyone in the room was staring at him in shock, motionless and speechless. Erwin's face was now an unreadable mask, and that very fact made his heart break. This wasn't how he'd wanted to tell him. He hadn't wanted to tell him at all.

Predictably, Mikasa was the first to react, but the action she took wasn't what he'd expected at all. He had thought she'd move to his right side, or behind him to quietly pledge her support. The last thing he expected or wanted was for her to fluidly kowtow to him, until she presented him with one of her bladed swords in her outstretched hands, and he realized it wasn't some obsequious gesture of respect, but a vow, as she spoke. "I pledge my life and my sword to your service, Highness," she swore, as if she were a Samurai of old.

"Not without me you don't. Me too, Prince Levi, I mean, Prince Papadreaos, " Eren said, his emerald green eyes all but glowing with intensity, in spite of being in human form, as he dropped to one knee beside Mikasa and in front of him awkwardly, holding out his own sword in his hands, as if he were a knight.

_Fuck. Samurai. Knights. That's actually a good idea._

"Stop kneeling to me, brats. I don't want you as sycophants, I want you as friends, as family. But I'd be honored to accept you to my side as my first two knights," Levi said sincerely, still uncomfortable but incredibly touched by their open show of support.

Hange walked up to him and punched him in the shoulder. "You're the Prince? And you didn't tell me, even when we talked about my father, and you and I vowed to stand with Erwin against the King, if it came to that?" she complained with her usual lack of tact and caution.

Levi snorted and shook his head. "Terrific. Make it look like we were planning a coup all along, why don't you? Honestly, Zoe, it's a wonder you weren't killed years ago."

"What? We're all friends here, right? What's a little treason between friends? Well, if you call supporting the rightful heir, assassinating the King and staging a coup 'treason'," she qualified, making quote marks in the air around the last word, and then cracking her usual crazy grin.

Sasha strode up to him. "I want to be a knight too, even though I can't believe you didn't tell me either," she said with an intense pout.

Jean looked from him to Armin, and then the two of them strode up together. "Us too," they said in unison.

Bauer and Anders exchanged a single glance and wordlessly stepped forwards. "Us as well," they swore.

Liam was right behind them. "My life to yer service, yer 'ighness," he said with the old, once extinguished fire in his eyes. "If you've use for a one-legged knight, that is. I thank ye for not making me kneel. She's a thing of beauty, but 'tis troublesome to rise," he said, patting his prosthetic leg, with a wink and a devilish grin.

_Shit. Fuck._ This was getting completely out of hand. "Erwin, this doesn't mean we're betraying the Corps or that I'm usurping your authority."

"Really? You do realize that the Corps serves the King, and that as Commander, it is my duty to arrest you all and see you executed for treason?" Erwin said coolly, although only Connie and Kearney had yet to pledge to him, aside from the shifters and their supporter, Historia Reiss.

"Not unless you want hostilities to recommence, sir," Hoover said, his normally soft voice not at all apologetic and filled with iron. "Remember, we only pledged to support the Corps, and specifically qualified that would be whether or not you are at its head. From what we've seen and learned so far, the King is severely in need of deposing. I propose we read those journals you found and see why Dr. Yeager was apparently plotting a revolution of his own. Then we'll determine who it is in mankind's best interest to support. I strongly suggest you don't take action against anyone until that time, Commander."

Levi immediately stepped between Hoover and Erwin, his back to Erwin, but with hands held carefully away from his sword hilts. "That sounded like a threat. Erwin and I will work out all the ramifications of what I just revealed, and we'll read those books, as you suggested. But I won't allow you to harm Erwin or any other Scout here. And that is a statement of fact, not a threat."

Marcel Braun stepped between them. "We don't want to harm any of you. But we need to learn as much as we can, before supporting the reigning monarch, or the coup it looks like you plan to engineer. From everything I saw, Dr. Yeager is a noble and honorable man, but I only knew him for a very brief time, and it's possible I allowed my guilt and desperation to cloud my judgment. We can't afford to make another mistake, after the terrible ones we've already made."

"I agreed with Lieutenant Braun," Kearney said in support. "I've always been loyal, to Corps and King, though I know it's supposed to be to King and Corps. But though I might not like the man, he's our sovereign. If that's to change, there needs to be strong reason for it."

"Then it's time to see what Dr. Yeager and his fellow conspirators have to say," Levi said, heading for the crate of books and Hange's pack.

A/N:  
Levi silently referred to himself as a bastard prince in Chapter 39 – did anyone catch that? In the _No Regrets _prequel manga_, Outmaneuvered _and this story, you've heard how beautiful Levi's former home by the lake was, before his time in the Underground, strongly hinting that he might once have been nobility. He is, in actuality, royalty, or at least believes himself to be, though Kenny insists Levi is his son, not the King's. Only the King, Kenny and I know the truth.


	45. Chapter 45 - Painful Truths

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
If you like my Titans stories, you might also like my published original high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, which includes strong female, multi-ethnic, bisexual and gay characters, and is available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner. It's a tale of lost kingdoms, valiant and desperate heroes, and epic battles and quests, in a medieval world populated by humans, Elves, Dwarves, Ogres and mythical beasts, battling a god-like insane necromancer and his army of the dead.**

Chapter 45 – Painful Truths

Armin eyed the others surreptitiously. _This can't be real. Please tell me this is all some kind of sick nightmare. Maybe I'm in the middle of dying right now, and this is a delirious dream. Or maybe Eren ate me too, and this really is hell. It would make more sense than waking up in bed with Jean, to find out we're working with the shifters, that we retook Shiganshina and sealed Wall Maria, that Hange and Mikasa are Titans, Levi is a Prince, and everyone is about to commit treason. But no matter how many times I pinch myself, I'm still here. It looks and feels and sounds and smells real. What little I ate for breakfast tasted real._

_Which means, I have to play along. I have to work with them. I hate Reiner and Bertolt for what they did, for taking down the Wall. Annie too, now that I know she was the one who ordered it. I still don't understand it and can't forgive them. They're the reason Grandfather and Eren's mother and Thomas and everyone else is dead. And what they did to Randall was monstrous. He was so nice, such a good man, so loyal to and protective of Commander Pixis, and so eager to aid me in helping Levi, and they tortured him to death. They cut off his fingers! How could anyone do something like that to someone? Like the way Annie killed everyone as the Female Titan, smugly, with that stupid grin on her face, like it was all a big joke._

_But Bertolt and Reiner are supposedly on our side now. I can't risk upsetting that, openly setting them against us. I need to play along and be a good little soldier until I know what's in those books. Levi trusts me, more than he trusts most people, at least. I can use that against him._ _I've been able to lie to him and trick him before._

The thought of truly betraying Levi left Armin feeling physically ill, but too much had happened, too many pivotal events in too short a time, for him to process fully, especially without knowing what was in those books, what secrets the King and others might have been keeping. He still couldn't believe everyone was ready to commit reason so easily, or that both Erwin and Levi, and even Krista, had hidden their true identities from them, even from one another, for so long. That they were all working with the shifters, after what they'd done. Eren, of all people was. Mikasa was. And everyone was joining Levi's plot to kill the King. Only Connie, Kearney and Erwin hadn't sworn oath to Levi.

The look he and Jean had shared before pledging to Levi… Armin was certain at first that he saw the same spark of disbelief and mistrust in Jean's eyes, before their silent resolution. But had he? Or had Jean truly been pledging to Levi as his new King, to be a party to assassination and treason, without reservations? Armin's heart clenched at the thought that Jean might suddenly somehow have become his enemy too.

He knew there was no way to stand against Levi directly. But depending upon what they found, he knew what he had to do. Pixis would likely support the coup. He was all but staging his own, the way he had developed those specially groomed Special Forces squads. The bulk of the Corps was ultimately controlled by Pixis now, not Erwin, no matter what he'd said when giving him the 200 new men. But the MPs despised the Corps and ridiculed the Garrison, and Pixis. He could use that, except the MP Commander, Nile Dok, was personally at odds with Erwin.

_Would he side with him, to help him stop a coup?_ _Does he even know that Erwin is really Edward Reiss, an heir to the throne?_ They were best friends once, but Erwin and Levi worked together for years, they were even lovers now, and Erwin had still hidden the truth from Levi.

"Let's sort these books, and then we all start reading. Bring anything significant to the attention of everyone," Erwin ordered, apparently trying to regain a fraction of his lost control over the Corps.

Armin headed for the crate, along with the others, eager in spite of everything to see what was written in those books.

They counted and then sorted through the books from the crate and added the journal from Hange's pack. There were 57 books total, 26 printed works, plus 31 handwritten volumes.

Armin's eyes widened at the titles of the printed books. 10 were medical tomes, 8 were volumes on various plants and herbs and their uses, both medicinally and in cooking, but the other 8 were copies of the banned books he'd seen in the Underground Library:

_For Want of a Nail: Staging a Successful Revolution against a Monarchy_

_Freedom is Just a Stone's Throw Away_

_Democracy: The Only Lasting Government_

_The Corruption of Kings: Why Monarchies Fail_

_A Heretic's Guide to Happiness _

_Sins of Our Fathers: The Building of Wall Sina_

_From the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria to Walls Sina, Rose and Maria: Our Shrinking World_

_More Than an Arm and a Leg: The True Cost of Our War against the Titans_

The latter four were written by more modern authors and martyrs, by enemies of the Crown who had been killed for their treasonous works during the past hundred years, but the first appeared to be recently reproduced, printed copies of the older, original volumes he'd seen in the Library.

_Does this mean that Eren's father knew about the Library? Did he go there, like Grandfather, and obtain copies of some of their books_? _Does the Library have a printing press, or know someone who does, one other than the one used for the newspaper?_

Armin's heart froze at the greater implication. _Was Grandfather part of whatever plot Hange's parents and Dr. Yeager were involved in too? Were my parents? Oh God. What if they didn't really die trying to go over the Wall? What if they were caught, and executed?_

_No. No, they couldn't have been. We would have been jailed or watched, and Grandfather would have warned me, wouldn't he have?_

"Oh my God. These are my mother's. I recognize her handwriting," Mikasa said reverently, pointing to two of the handwritten volumes. "They're written in Japanese. These other eight too, though someone else wrote them. The titles on all of them say _Radio Message Log_, and from the dates, they go back over a hundred years.

"It's going to be difficult for me to decipher them. It's been years since I've read Japanese, and I was still learning. But the books my mother used to teach me, and her dictionary are still here, in my parent's room, I noticed them earlier. I didn't go into my parent's room the last time we were here, or I would have brought them back with me."

"The rest of these are my father's. These eight look like journals, and the other thirteen look like laboratory notebooks, like the ones Hange keeps," Eren said. "Both sets go back decades, from the dates on the inside covers."

"Alright. Ackerman, your job is to decipher the Japanese books. Start at the end of the most recent book, the final entry, and work your way back," Erwin ordered. "Yeager, we need to let everyone read a volume of your father's journals and laboratory notebooks."

"I know sir. That's fine," Eren agreed. "But I'm reading this one. Mikasa and I deserve to see what's in this one before anyone else. It's not the most recent volume, the one about Marcel and the plague. But it covers our adopting Mikasa into our family."

"Alright, Yeager. Give me the most recent journal, and Hange the most recent laboratory notebook. The rest of you, pick a book and start reading," Erwin ordered.

Eren handed Erwin and Hange the requested books. Kearney, O'Seanessey, Ymir, Marcel, and surprisingly, Reiner, each took a lab notebook to read. Levi, Jean, Anders, Sasha and Connie each picked a journal. Bauer was on Titan watch outside. Armin picked up the remaining journal, resolutely opened it, and began to read.

0 0 0

Eren had chosen the journal that began a few months before Mikasa's parents were killed, and she joined their family. He needed to find out how well his father had known hers, and whether he knew about the radio. He also wanted to learn whether or not his mother had been aware of the conspiracy against the monarchy, whether she was part of it or oblivious to it. Whether his father had endangered her unknowingly, the way he'd endangered him and Mikasa. The families of those arrested for treason were usually arrested too. He still wasn't sure how Hange had survived and was still free, if her father was killed for treason. 

Eren began reading his father's journal at the beginning, frowning at the first words, written a few months before he'd met Mikasa.

_I worry about Eren. He's such an intense child, quick to anger and slow to make friends. He views our gray world in such pure tones of black and white that he cannot help but be bruised by it. He loves unconditionally and hates passionately; he has no tolerance at all for injustice and cruelty in our unjust and cruel world. For Eren, there is no middle ground, no compromise, only violence. I fear where it might lead him. _

_Eren is fortunately blind to my many flaws yet at the same time disappointingly impatient with his mother, who has the soul of a saint. Carla is the one who truly deserves the devotion Eren showers upon me. Were it not for my beloved wife, I'd have thrown caution to the winds long ago, and acted on my own against our oppressors. It both saddens and amuses me that the others see me as the heart and soul of our rebellion, when Carla is the one at its core. She is driven by love: she would change the world for the sake of our son._

Eren gasped in shock and disbelief. His mother hadn't been an oblivious, trusting pawn, but the true head of the rebellion?

He had hated reading how disappointed his father sounded in him, but he began reading again with renewed eagerness, wanting to hear more about his mother. He'd taken her for granted when he was younger, and regretted it since the day she died. He wanted to see her through his father's eyes.

_I fear Eren has inherited my proud nature, but none of my common sense or survival instinct, and no acknowledgement of his own limitations. I cannot count the number of times he has come home bruised and bloodied from fighting with the neighborhood children. It is fortunate I am a physician by trade; his medical expenses would have bankrupted us by now, otherwise. When he is not being bullied himself, he is fighting against those who bully others, but the end result is unchanged: he always loses, and is beaten just the same. Frankly, the only child more preyed upon than Eren is Daniel's grandson, Armin. _

_Armin is such a meek and unassuming, gentle boy, nothing like his parents. Perhaps if Abraham and Sarah had lived he would have inherited their adventurous nature, their spark and fire. The flames of rebellion and freedom burnt so brightly in their eyes. As did mischief, and humor, and love. They were our closest and dearest friends. Carla and I miss them fiercely._

_If I had ever needed further proof the God of my father was a lie, their deaths were that irrefutable evidence that an all knowing and compassionate and powerful higher being has never and will never exist, that no amount of begging or prayer will ever alter the callous, vicious, soulless existence each of us is born into. My father labeled me a heretic with his dying breath. I embrace the title that sanctimonious fool bestowed upon me. I have no use for his God. I am the master of my own fate, and of my son's. And of Abraham's son, in his stead._

_It is so hard to look at Armin as he grows, and see his parents' beloved faces in his own. He has his mother Sarah's gentle features, his father Abraham's bright and compassionate eyes. Armin is just as intelligent and caring as they were, but far too timid to ever challenge the regime that murdered his parents, that destroyed his family. And Daniel is too much of a pacifist to ever avenge his son and daughter-in-law. It frustrates me that one day Daniel will likely follow his son to an untimely death. Still, if Armin somehow manages to survive, perhaps he will at least find enough courage to truly be the friend Eren so desperately needs. Perhaps the two of them together will survive where one alone could not._

Eren frowned at the book. _What does he mean, Armin's parents were murdered? I thought they went over the Wall, that the Titans killed them_. He continued to read.

_Eren will not always have me and Carla to protect him. We do not expect to survive the uprising. Revolutionaries seldom do. We spent so many careful years of planning, only to watch the Garrison shoot the Arlerts' balloon from the sky, and witness them fall to their deaths in the mouths of the Titans, only a few dozen meters from the Wall. But they, like every revolutionary before them, fought and struggled not for themselves, but for their child, not for their own futures, but for his. _

Eren's eyes widened in shock._ The Garrison killed Armin's parents?_

_I only wish Armin was truly worthy of their sacrifice. But we weaken our race with every generation caged behind these Walls. Do the often uneducated, inbred, docile sheep we have become truly deserve to be saved? It does not matter. We have already paid too high a price, in Vidya, Abraham, and Sarah. Carla, Nathaniel, Yuri, Theon, and I, and the others whose names I do not know, must echo the military in our callousness, and tally them all in the column marked "Acceptable Losses" and move on, if we are to ever achieve our goal. Only history will tell whether victory was worth the price of our sacrifice. _

Eren's heart pounded.Mikasa's parents were part of the rebellion! And so was Hypatia's father! Was Pixis? Was he one of the unknown names? That old man was far too cagey to reveal himself so openly.

Eren swallowed hard as he flipped the page to the next day's entry. _I was a disappointment to my father. An uneducated, inbred, docile sheep. An antisocial misfit incapable of making friends. Helpless and useless in a fight. And my father thought Armin was even worse._ Eren only wished his father could have seen them as they were now: strong soldiers, fighting for humanity, surrounded by friends and comrades. People like Levi and Jean and Sasha, and even Hange and Reiner and Bertolt.

He continued to read, until he finally reached the date of the attack on Mikasa's home, turning the page and staring in shock at the all but blank paper, the three words written in the very center: _Eren is dead. _

A chill ran from his heart, down his spine. _What does that mean? _Eren's eyes anxiously scanned the opposite the page.

_That was the only thought in my head, when I returned to Nathaniel's house with the MPs, and found Eren gone, once they showed me his footsteps, overlain on those of the men who killed the Ackermans, the men who took Mikasa. Those men killed my friends, and I was certain they had also killed my son._

_It was only later, after I heard Mikasa calmly and emotionlessly echo the words of her kidnappers, the cruel and sickening fate that awaited her, that I realized that death might have been a mercy. Eren is a handsome child, graced by the looks of his mother. The men who took Mikasa to sell to the deviants in the Capital would have made similar use of Eren. Except they were as ignorant as I of Eren's true nature. They foolishly saw him as a victim, someone to be exploited, easily destroyed._

_I too had thought Eren weak. I had thought him easy prey for such monsters. But I was as wrong as they were. Eren hunted them, with the single-minded purpose of a cat. He tricked and toyed with them. And he stabbed them, coldly and mercilessly. He murdered two men. And he drove Mikasa to murder a third. As a doctor, I was appalled. As a father, I was terrified. Eren had finally become the monster I had always feared he might be. _

Eren stared wide-eyed at the damning words, and forced himself to read on.

_It was only after Eren defended his actions to me so fiercely, so unapologetically, and after Mikasa told us what those men had said, after she related how ruthlessly the men had butchered her parents before her eyes, that I realized the truth. Eren was not a monster, he was a surgeon. He found a cancer, and he excised it. He removed a tumor. He amputated a gangrenous limb to save a life. He acted, and Mikasa lived._

_I took her in, of course. As her godlessfather, I could do no less. _

_Her godlessfather. It hurts, seeing that word in writing, after hearing Nathaniel teasingly speak it to me so many times. I thought him mad, when he first asked me to be his newborn daughter's godfather, but he was persistent and insistent. _

"_Who else would I ask, Grisha? My brother? No matter how much I once loved him, you know what he's become. We don't live on this mountainside merely for the clearer signal reception this elevation provides. We're in hiding from Kenny as well as from the King._

"_But I have every reason to trust you with my daughter's life. You saved both Yuri and Mikasa, the day my daughter was born. It's thanks to you I'm a happy father, instead of a mourning widower. If Yuri and I die young, we know you'll see Mikasa grow into a fine woman. Of course, I'd much rather bounce her children on my knee, and become a doting grandfather. You know, Eren will need a wife someday. If he's half the man you are, Mikasa would be lucky to have your son for a husband."_

_Until now, I feared Eren would never be even half the man I am. I have never been so grateful to be proven wrong. But only time will tell whether that knowledge was worth your life, my friend. Abraham always told me, "Nothing ever happens without a reason." That every tragedy brings some hidden benefit. I cannot imagine what possible good can come from your death, and Yuri's. But I will do my best to raise Mikasa as my own._

Eren stared, stunned. Mikasa's father had given them his blessing, when they were still both infants, and his own father had doubted him almost his entire life. He swallowed hard, and turned to the others in the room, who were all reading just as intently.

"Mikasa? Prince Levi, sir? You both need to see this part," Eren said. He bit his lip. "And… um… Armin? You need to see something too," Eren added hesitantly. "Jean, I think maybe you should see that part too." Having Jean there might help, in addition to him, and Mikasa.

The others all looked up from their books as well. "It's about our families. It doesn't concern the rest of you," Eren said fiercely.

Erwin came over anyway, behind Levi, and Eren didn't try to discourage him.

"Stop calling me Prince. Captain or Levi is fine. What did you find?" Levi scolded.

"This is what you and Mikasa need to see. And you need to see the part about Armin, too," Eren said, showing them the passage about Mikasa's parents, and Kenny.

"Bastard," Levi spat.

"So that's why we lived so far from Shiganshina! Out of fear of my uncle, and for the radio. Reception was a word Hange and Kearney used, when speaking about the… " Mikasa's eyes widened. "He showed it to me! Your father. It was a week or so after you took me in. There was this device I'd never seen before. He asked me if I knew what it was, if I knew how to use it, but I didn't. I'd never seen it before. I didn't see the radio in Shiganshina, before you crated it, but I think that must have been what he showed me," Mikasa said with conviction.

"It sounds like he didn't know how to operate it and was hoping you might," Erwin said. "Show us the other passage, about Arlert."

"It lists the names of some of the rebels, and what happened to some of them," Eren said, his eyes flicking to Armin's face in guilt and sympathy.

"Oh Armin," Mikasa said softly in horror, as she read the damning words as Armin's eyes widened in shock and horror.

0 0 0

"They didn't just go over the Wall and never come back? They were attacked? The Garrison murdered my parents?" Armin asked, horrified. There had always been a small part of him that had believed they might still return someday, that they might somehow have survived, but couldn't get back. That hope died.

"Damn it. If anyone needed any further proof that King Franz needs to be deposed, that's it right there. Any regime that would rather kill their own people than let them leave needs to be destroyed," Levi said fiercely.

"But why? How could my parents leaving possibly be a danger to the Garrison?" Armin insisted. There had to be a reason, some reason, any reason.

"Because they were a danger to the King, and he controls the Garrison, the military. If your parents left and found out that there were other places out there to live, better places, places where the Titans had been defeated, and came back and told everyone, then who would want to stay here? Ultimately, the Titans are what keep that cowardly fucker Franz in power.

"Shit. Fuck. Which is why he doesn't support the Corps, why he does everything he can to hamstring us: cut the funds, make sure the populace ridicules us, to ensure no cadet in his right mind would want to join. No, more than that, he uses it to funnel all the malcontents with any physical strength or arms training into the branch of the service where they'll likely be killed. Give them something more immediately dangerous to fight, so they don't band together and fight the King instead," Levi claimed angrily.

Armin was numb with horror. _I've been trying to protect the King from the Corps, from Levi, and it's the King who ordered the Garrison to murder my parents?_

"That's it exactly," Erwin agreed. "A system that keeps a handful of people with the money and the power and the land in control. That keeps the royalty and nobility in control. People like my father. I saw how wrong it was. I saw what my father was. That's one of the reasons I chose a life in the Corps. I wanted to turn it into an effective fighting force against the Titans, to free humanity not just from them, but from the King, the nobility, the entire rotted power structure that kept us penned and docile like sheep for a century, with the Military Police as not only sheepdogs, but wolves, to thin the flock from troublesome rams and ewes and even lambs.

"Levi, there's likely a good reason the Numbers Killer targeted the Military Police. I'm not arguing that he isn't a madman for what he's done, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a ewe or a lamb Captain Ackerman felt needed avenging," Erwin claimed. "It could have been because of your mother, or you, or he might even have thought his brother was dead, and not realized he was merely in hiding from him, and blamed the King."

Levi glared at Erwin, clearly not wanting to believe Kenny Ackerman might not quite be the demon he believed him to be.

"We need to read more. To find out everything we can. I wonder now, how much Commander Pixis knows about the King, the nobles, the Military Police, everything that's wrong with our government and military. We can't afford to jump to the wrong conclusions or act hastily," Armin insisted, determined that they not repeat the tragic mistakes the shifters had made, by acting on incomplete intelligence.

"Armin's right. Back to your books, everyone," Levi ordered, looking guiltily up at Erwin and wincing. As their Captain, he had every right to issue that order, but he obviously didn't want to appear to be flaunting his new authority.

Without another word Erwin headed back to his book. Levi dropped his head in defeat, and exhaled loudly, then lifted his head again in resolution and headed back to his own book.


	46. Chapter 46 - Change in Plans

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Thanks again for all the reviews, favorites and follows! I'd love to hear from more of you! Remember, I privately respond to all reviews, oftentimes with all kinds of neat little tidbits, so don't be shy, leave a review!**

**Special thanks to my regular reviewers: AutumnMobile12, Comix and Co, Cranberryfriend, DarkFireNyx, Evilkitten3, ExcessiveDonkey, JasonVUK, i Sniped the Chief, Kiri Natsuma-Tetsuya, kittylover195678, Scordatura, Stark01, WhiteXTrainer00, YaraCupli4ever, and 18Gs, and to all my intermittent and guest reviewers. You guys are the best!**

**And if any of you out there miss Günther, Petra, Eld, and Oluo from the original Squad Levi, be sure to read _Tavern Ventures_ by AutumnMobile12. She's written some amazing vignettes!****  
**

Chapter 46 – Change in Plans

Armin sat down, and opened his book to the page he'd carefully bookmarked, and stared numbly at the handwritten page of the journal. _The Garrison murdered my parents. They were eaten. My parents were part of the revolution Eren's parents were planning. Mikasa's were. Hypatia's father was. And now they're all dead. _

_Oh God. What if the King was the one who sent those men to kill Mikasa's father and capture her and her mother, to silence them? _

_No. That doesn't make any sense. They must not have known about the radio, or the men who took Mikasa would have taken it, too. Or destroyed it. But if the King didn't know about the radio, then how did the messages from the shifters get to him? Or did the Ackerman's send messages to him and he didn't know who they were from?_

"Armin? Are you OK?" Jean asked, his voice laced with concern.

Armin swallowed hard and shook his head. His head was spinning with all he'd heard.

"Come on. Let's take a break. Maybe go outside and talk?" Jean suggested.

Armin rose mechanically, closing the book and setting it down. He started to let Jean usher him out the front door.

"If you're going outside, you need to put your gear on," Levi ordered.

Armin looked down at himself and realized he was still wearing the dress he'd woken up in, that he wasn't even in uniform. Jean was, but he wasn't wearing his maneuver gear harness or scabbards.

"You should have it on anyway. There's no telling how long we'll be safe here. There could be another attack at any moment. We need to be ready to fight or run," Levi scolded. "In fact, we need to put the radio, the books we're not reading yet, and the bulk of our supplies in the smoking cave, where they'll be safer. We'll rendezvous there if the cabin is destroyed. Armin, Eren, Mikasa and I know the way and can show it to each of you, as you move things there. If there's another attack, it's each person's responsibility to get the book they're reading safely out.

"I know we were talking about repairing the cabin, Mikasa, but we can't risk it. Hammering could bring the Titan's attention to us, and they might just step on it anytime in the future anyway. Once the rest of the shifters clear the Titans out of this ring between Wall Rosa and Wall Maria, you can reclaim this place. But we're sitting ducks out here," Levi apologized. And then he looked even more grim.

"Fuck. Erwin, I know you want as much intel as you can get from these books, that you're afraid of losing everything on the trail back, but now that Armin's mobile, we should pack up and head back. We'll be a lot safe in the underground passage than we are here. We can hide out there or in the Library and read, if you're afraid the King's men might confiscate this stuff if we head back to base. You told me you raided Shiganshina for more supplies, so we don't need Mikasa or Sasha to go hunting."

Erwin looked at Levi, the spark of challenge in his eyes.

But before he could say anything, Hange spoke. "He's right, Commander. We need to pack up and move out, now, while we're all well fed, rested, uninjured and well supplied. Every moment we stay out here we risk losing everyone and everything."

Armin saw the Commander's expression change to his usual look of steely eyed determination, the urge to argue quenched.

"You're right," Erwin agreed. "Arlert, Kirstein, gear up. The rest of you, check your straps and scabbards. Everyone put the book you're reading in your own pack, those of you who have one. That way, if we lose the book crate on the way back, we don't lose everything. I want everyone to guard those crates with your lives, but if it comes down to one crate or the other, the radio takes priority. Refill your canteens from the well outside and hit the latrine. We move out as soon as everyone's ready."

"Come on, Armin. Your pack's in the bedroom," Jean said, taking his shoulder and guiding him, as if he was afraid he might not move otherwise.

Jean closed the door after them, momentarily shutting the others out. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start a bug out. I was just worried about you. That was a lot to take in. I figured you needed to talk."

Armin didn't answer as he opened his pack and got out his spare uniform.

"Um, Armin? You can still talk, right?" Jean asked anxiously.

Armin closed his eyes and sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you. I just… They were… How could…?" He hated how he choked on his words, how much he wanted to cry. His parents had died years ago. But he'd still hoped… and they'd been **murdered**, by the Garrison, by the very soldiers that were supposed to protect everyone.

"Yeah, I know. It's like everything we know, that we thought we knew, is a lie, right? I can't believe how stupid I used to be, wanting to join the Military Police, when the King is this corrupt. Although I don't even know what to believe anymore, who to believe in."

Jean's voice dropped lower, and he continued far more quietly. "I mean, the Commander and Captain were both lying to us too. Hiding things, at least. Even their names. So all this time, the Commander is a high-ranking noble, a Reiss, and Levi's a freaking Prince? I mean, Levi? Seriously? What the hell?"

Armin looked Jean in the eye and spoke just as softly. "I know. Before, when I swore to support Levi, I was lying. I hoped you were, too, that you realized like I did that the only way we could stop him was to pretend to join him."

Jean exhaled heavily. "Thank God. I'd hoped I'd read that look right. I mean, I know you Armin. There's no way you'd just calmly go along with treason and maybe even regicide, no matter how you feel about Levi. I mean, I figured you'd try to talk him out of it, once he calmed down, convince him he was wrong."

Armin nodded. "I would have if I could. But I was trying to figure out who to trust to help us, if I couldn't. I think Pixis has either been planning his own coup or is part of the Yeagers' and my parents'. His cousin Theon was, and then there's him knowing about the Library and not only hiding it but helping them steal from the MPs and Garrison. And if Erwin was on our side, Dok would want to support the King, but Dok hates Erwin, so they might not have worked together.

"But now, after what we read, about the Garrison murdering my parents, after what Levi and Erwin and Krista said… And the shifters. Marcel. Just everything... I don't know anymore. I thought you should know that. Because if you still want to side with Erwin against Levi, you need to know not to trust me with whatever you tell me. Because it was hard enough thinking I'd be turning against Eren, Mikasa and Levi, and Sasha and the others. I don't think I can turn against you, Jean. But I can't just blindly join you, either. I wish…. I wish I never woke up. I can't…."

Armin swallowed hard, unable to say another word, and then, Jean's arms were around him.

"Don't think like that! You can't think like that. When you were.… When I thought.… Just don't, OK? We'll get through this, Armin. This is all just stupid politics. I mean, I know it's our lives, our past, our future, but it's just bullshit. If we have to run off and live on a mountainside somewhere like Mikasa's parents did, then we will. If we have to overthrow the damned King, we will. If we have to betray the Corps and keep that fucker in power… Shit. I don't think… No. I know. I just can't, Armin. So where does that leave us?" Jean asked gruffly.

"Together. The whole world can go to hell," Armin swore. "It already is hell. I understand now, those locks Eren's father put on the door, on the coffin and what he wrote. It seemed so crazy to me before, but this whole thing is crazy. The world's not supposed to be like this. It's supposed to make sense. It's supposed to work. So we'll make it work. We have to. This is all there is, at least for now. Once we contact those other Sanctuaries… Islands. They're all islands, surrounded by the ocean, just like in Grandfather's book. They can't all be messed up like we are here."

"Come on. You'd better get dressed, and I need to get my gear on. We don't want the Commander or Captain coming in and chewing us out," Jean said, giving him a final squeeze.

Armin tightened his own embrace, before letting him go. "Right. For now, at least, we need to be good little soldiers."

0 0 0

Mikasa rubbed her neck, thankful they'd be leaving. After spending the bulk of the morning in painstaking translation of the most recent Radio Message Log, dutifully transcribing the Japanese messages for Erwin, she was mentally exhausted, and ached for a break.

The rest of them shared interesting snippets they'd read while they packed to go, but there was nothing else earth shattering like what Eren had revealed. Unless, of course, someone was hiding something. She only trusted Reiner, Bertolt, Marcel, Ymir, and Krista to a point.

The outgoing radio messages she'd translated so far were status reports, the ones after their marketing trips regarding different military and political events, and others simply checking in, with the now familiar words, "No news to report."

The incoming messages she'd translated so far weren't anything noteworthy, beyond the astonishing fact that they confirmed the Sanctuaries of Mankind in Japan, Hawaii and Australia Ymir had mentioned were still extant and thriving, at least as of five-and-a-half years ago. There might well be others, too, that just hadn't been mentioned yet.

Hopefully none of them had experienced tragedies akin to their own since. Though she doubted they might: the other three were all islands, isolated from the Titans by immense bodies of water, the oceans that Armin so loved to speak about. Although there might be others like theirs, protected from the Titans by Walls or some other type of manmade or natural barrier.

Mikasa looked over at the door Jean and Armin had disappeared behind and frowned in concern. Armin had looked so confused and devastated, learning how his parents really died. She empathized with how painful it must have been to hear.

Then she turned to Eren. He was frowning, lost in thought, that hurt look she knew all too well on his face. He'd tried so hard to make his father proud, but Grisha had never been an easy man to please. He was always a strict disciplinarian, rather than a gentle and teasing loving man, like her own father. She'd been grateful to Grisha for taking her in, but she'd never loved him, the way she'd loved her own father. Carla, though, she'd loved as a second mother. She never would have guessed she was secretly planning a revolution.

Her gaze flicked to Levi. He looked incredibly tense, like an overstressed maneuver gear cable ready to snap. It was clear not only Levi's newly revealed status but the way it had been disclosed to Erwin and the unexpected consequences had caused an enormous amount of tension between Levi and Erwin. Erwin hadn't said a word to him that wasn't a military observation or order all morning. She headed for Levi.

"I know you said we're well stocked, but check the snares with me? It can't hurt to have some fresh meat for the trip too," Mikasa suggested. She'd set a number of snares around the garden for rabbits, and in the trees for squirrels earlier in the morning, before Armin woke up, to fill the dinner stew pot and supplement their supplies. She hadn't had the time to go deer hunting, and hadn't wanted to stray far from the cabin and risk attracting more Titans to it with too much activity anyway.

Levi frowned in revulsion, and Mikasa belatedly remember him referring to the squirrels as bushy-tailed rats and the rabbits as hopping rats, though he had partaken of the rabbit stew she'd made the last time they were here. At the time, he'd likely been too hungry and too eager to build his strength to get back to Erwin to care, and also, that had been before the rats he'd had to deal with on base.

"I'd like to talk to you. Walk with me outside, for a bit?" she explained more softly.

"If it's about the radio messages, Erwin needs to hear too," Levi replied just as quietly, looking pained.

"It's not. It's private," she clarified.

His brow rose and he darted a glance at Eren and Erwin. Both of them were busy packing. "Alright, but it needs to be quick."

They headed outside.

"Lunchtime?" Sasha asked hopefully, glancing at them, but then dutifully looking back towards the woods she was guarding them against, before darting another look at Levi.

Levi shook his head. "No, brat. We're going to be eating on the trail. We're packing up and moving out, as soon as we're ready to go. It's too dangerous to stay out here like this."

"Thank goodness. After those three Aberrants, I've been afraid even more might come. Did Connie and I miss anything major? Anything interesting in those books so far?" she asked curiously.

"Later, brat. We'll talk on the trail. Mikasa and I need to check the snares," Levi explained.

Sasha frowned. "I'll do it with her instead. You can stand guard with Connie. Or Connie and I can go. Just tell me where you set them, Mikasa. Around the garden, and where else?" Sasha was just as protective of Levi as Mikasa was.

Levi gave her the ghost of a smile. "I need to talk to Mikasa, too, not just check the snares."

"Oh!" Sasha said in sudden understanding. "That's different then. Let Connie know we're moving out if you see him, OK? He's on the other side of the cabin.

"Yes, brat," Levi agreed.

Mikasa headed for the garden, Levi in tow. Once they were alone, she apologized to him. "I'm sorry. When I pledged myself in support of you, I didn't realize I was stirring up a hornet's nest."

Levi sighed, sounding infinitely weary. "It's not your fault. Erwin's angry with me for hiding my identity from him, though he did the exact same thing to me. But he also feels I'm usurping his authority. Then there's the whole treason and rebellion aspect. It was better that he saw right away the way the wind is blowing. He's too good a tactician to act against us before he has Zacharius and whoever else he can muster at his back. Not that I'm willing to fight Erwin," Levi qualified.

"I know. Though it's possible he won't give you that option," Mikasa cautioned.

"I'm hoping it won't come to him trying. I wish I knew what the Old Man was up to. Whether Pixis really has been planning his own coup all this time, or is part of the Yeagers'," Levi replied. "I hate this shit, the politics and intrigue. Give me a knife fight or even an ambush any day, an opponent I can see and fight, not someone stabbing me in the back from cities away."

"You know whatever path you take, Eren, Armin and I will support you," Mikasa assured him. "And not only us. Jean, Sasha and almost everyone else, too."

"I know. I saw, though I didn't expect it. But it might be a different story, if Erwin sides against me. He's a natural born leader. He's the one with the charisma and head for it. He should be the damned King, not me," Levi grumbled.

"So overthrow the King, lock up Erwin's father, then abdicate the throne in favor of Erwin. Or better yet, marry him, and rule alongside him," Mikasa urged earnestly.

Levi stared at her. "Marry him? You do know he's a guy, right?"

"So?" Mikasa challenged.

"So I can't," Levi stated, in a tone that implied she was crazy for thinking otherwise.

"Why not? If the two of you are making the laws, you can make it legal for men to marry men and women to marry women. Why should it matter what sex people are? If they love each other, they should be able to marry. The rest of the Corps and all of Pixis's Special Forces would support a change in our laws like that," Mikasa argued.

"What about heirs? If you want a stable monarchy, you need heirs," Levi argued.

"So appoint some. Or use the current military hierarchy of the Corps. Have Squad Leader Zacharius be your heir," she urged. "I know he's not your favorite person in the world, but he's intelligent, unquestioningly loyal to Erwin, and other than that weird sniffing quirk of his, charismatic. He's well liked and trusted by the men."

Levi frowned, but she could see it wasn't in disagreement, but in thought. "You've given me an idea. More than one. Let's deal with the snares now. I don't want us holding up the others."

"Alright," Mikasa agreed. If she were Eren, she'd ask Levi what his ideas were and pester Levi into telling him, but she was content seeing she'd helped him work things out, at least a little.


	47. Chapter 47 - Bug Out

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 47 – Bug Out

As Eren repacked his pack with the half eaten remnants of his washed uniform, he wondered what Jean and Armin were talking about, in the bedroom, while they were dressing and putting on their gear. And why Mikasa had been so eager to bring Levi with her to inspect the traps. What she had wanted to speak to Levi about privately. Had she found something particularly damning in the radio messages, something she didn't want either the shifters or the Commander to know about? She wouldn't be able to keep it secret from them indefinitely.

Eren glanced over at the Titan shifters. They'd been whispering amongst themselves, and it had gotten pretty heated, for a while, though he couldn't hear what they were saying. He'd noticed Erwin and some of the others watching them carefully, while packing up their bags.

Reiner peeled off from the group and headed for Erwin. Eren quickly moved to the Commander's right, making it clear which side of any potential hostility he'd be on. He'd sworn to be Levi's knight, and Levi wouldn't want the Commander under-protected.

Reiner looked Eren in the eye and nodded, like he approved. Then he turned to Erwin. "I'm not going to confront you or cause trouble, Commander. I just wanted to inform you that I'll be accompanying you, Ymir and Krista back to the Capital. I have command seniority, after Annie, since Ymir's rank is from a different military. I'll negotiate with whichever factions or forces assume or retain control within the Walls. But you need to know that Marcel and Bertolt aren't returning with us."

Erwin raised a brow. "And why is that, Scout Braun?" he asked.

Eren realized Erwin was trying to exert his authority, by reminding Braun that he was still under his command, still part of the Corps.

"Our intentions aren't nefarious. They're just the opposite. If Marcel enters Sina, it will be Shiganshina all over again. The plague, I mean, not the attack," he was quick to clarify. "Marcel's still a contagious carrier, and only the military is vaccinated, not the civilian population of the City. I don't know why the rest of us aren't contagious like he is, what mutated strain is in his blood, that isn't in ours, but until we can either vaccinate the entire population or find a way to immunize him, it's too risky to expose anyone to him.

"So he and Bertolt are going back to our Base Camp. Then once Ymir and I rejoin them, the four of us will begin clearing the ring of Titans, like we promised. Assuming I'm still alive, that is. If not, then Ymir will, maybe with Eren and Mikasa and Hange to assist. It's too dangerous for just Marcel and Bertolt to try it alone. With three to six shifters, they should be safe enough to survive it."

Eren frowned. Reiner wasn't counting himself. He should have said four to seven. It was like he was assuming he would be dead.

Eren looked over at Bertolt. He hated to see the anguished looks on Bertolt's and Marcel's faces at Reiner's words. Even after everything the other shifters had done, he didn't hate Reiner, the way Armin did. He couldn't.

Reiner had been like the older brother he'd never had, he'd been like that for the entire 104th. Without him, he'd never have made it through training. And now, he might be able to give him all kinds of useful, helpful information about maintaining control while shifted. But Reiner couldn't do any of that, if he became the victim of some royal's or noble's or Wallist or military witch hunt, before Levi could assume power.

"You should go too, Reiner," Eren urged. "I can negotiate for the shifters, with Ymir. There's still too great a chance the military or the civilians will want to see you dead, especially Pixis, because of Randall. The last thing we need is Marcel and Bertolt and Ymir wanting revenge."

"Eren's right," Hange agreed. "Worst case scenario, Mikasa and I can reveal ourselves as shifters, to help protect Eren and Ymir, or stay undercover and launch a surprise attack, if it comes to that. Between Eren's strength and my ability to maintain a higher level of cognitive thought, we'll make an unstoppable pair. Well, after the dynamite the Garrison and MPs have runs out, at least. I laced a few interesting compounds into the mix, just in case anyone else tried to reverse engineer them, since that's not something you want just anyone to make," Hange explained.

Levi and Erwin looked at her in stunned surprise.

"What? You don't think I realized they could use that against us? I don't want to even think about trying to evade exploding arrows using maneuver gear, or them blowing up our horses out from under us," Hange admitted bluntly, betraying that she'd indeed thought of it.

Eren stared at her, just as floored.

"Hey, you can't stay a wide-eyed dreamer forever, right? I learned my lesson the day Sunny and Bean were murdered. The ambush and poisoning of the Corps just brought it home even more," Hange concluded, looking grim, all levity gone.

"We didn't know Annie was going to kill your research subjects," Bertolt claimed. "Although, if we'd known, we wouldn't have stopped her, because what you were doing to them, that was like torturing dogs, or children. Like what some of those bastards back on base did to us, those tests and studies they ran, chopping off bits and pieces of us, to see how fast they grew back, or if we felt pain, or fear," Bertolt said quietly, wincing as Reiner paled and abruptly headed for the door to the cabin.

"I'm sorry," Bertolt called out after him, as Reiner bolted outside and disappeared into the trees. "Marcel, he's probably throwing up again. You'd better stay with him, make sure he's alright," Bertolt urged, and Marcel nodded and headed out after him.

"Reiner was telling the truth when he told you he hasn't slept or eaten since questioning Randall. We knew we had limited time to interrogate him, so Reiner had to cross some lines he doesn't like crossing, do things he wish he'd never done," Bertolt explained.

He took a deep breath and exhaled it deliberately. "Commander, Eren and Hange are right. You can't let Reiner go with you to the Capital. In spite of what he said, Ymir's a major too, like Annie. She can be our representative. We trust her to look out for our interests. Reiner needs to come with us. We'll begin clearing the ring immediately. He needs to do some serious penance for what he did right away, if he's going to make it through this."

"If you need a scapegoat, you'll have me. If it wasn't for Alpha Squad, I would have died a century ago. Not that I'm guaranteeing I'll go down without a fight, though," Ymir agreed, wrapping an arm around Krista reassuringly.

Erwin looked from Bertolt to Ymir. "Alright. I'll order Braun to accompany Hoover and his nephew. Now that we're not going off on what could have been an extensive search for Levi and Arlert, if everyone adds a couple of the books to their packs, can you carry the crate with the radio, Ymir? We'll be more mobile that way, in spite of the added weight in each pack. We can ditch the spare uniforms if we need to lighten the load or make room, since if all goes well, we should be back in the Capital in about four days."

"I can carry it. Eren can spell me on it, if need be. The additional strength in human form builds gradually, so Mikasa and Hange won't be up to it yet," Ymir explained.

"I want you to stay with us, to tell us everything you know about being a shifter, so Yeager, Hange and Mikasa know better what to expect and how to maintain control," Erwin stated.

"Of course. Like the guys said, they're our brother and sisters now. We look after our own," Ymir agreed. "And likewise, I want to know everything you find in the journals, and those Radio Message Logs."

"Of course. You and Hoover head outside and explain the new plan to Braun and make sure he understands it not only has my approval, but it's an order. He'll be more willing to comply, if it comes from you. And let him know you'll have access to our findings," Erwin agreed.

"Thank you, Commander," Bertolt said, his voice filled with relief and gratitude. Then he headed out with Ymir.

The bedroom door opened and Jean and Armin came out, fully dressed and equipped.

"Did something happen?" Jean asked, scanning the room alertly, apparently sensing the tension.

"We've just been finalizing plans with the shifters. Ymir is going to be accompanying us back to the Capital, but Hoover and the two Brauns are going to begin cleanup operations in this ring," Erwin stated.

Armin frowned. "What about justice for Randall?"

"This is justice," Erwin countered. "If I was Randall, and had served in the Garrison faithfully for years and then been tortured and killed, I'd want my murderer to do everything in his power to fix his mistakes and make the outer ring and then the rest of the world safe for humanity. Braun's death would be vengeance, not justice. It would accomplish nothing but alienating and infuriating the shifters. Do you really want this cycle of tragedy and misery and death to continue, Arlert, when it's within your power, our power, to end it?" Erwin demanded.

Armin looked stunned, like he'd been slapped, but then he stiffened. "No sir. If that's their intentions, then that's the best course of action. I think, in spite of what happened, even Commander Pixis might be able to understand that as well, in those terms, and his men might not like it, but they'll obey his orders."

"Good. I would have hoped I deserved that same loyalty, Arlert," Erwin challenged, a note of bitterness entering his voice.

Eren opened his mouth to defend Armin, but Armin beat him to it.

"You do, sir. I gave my oath to Levi under false pretenses, and I intend to tell him so. My intent was to support you all along," Armin admitted bluntly.

Eren gaped at him in shock, and he wasn't the only one.

"But after hearing what was in that journal, I can no longer support the King," Armin continued. "So I am loyal to you personally, sir, and to the Corps, but I am not loyal to the King. So whatever you decide, in regards to Levi and the others still applies to me. I just thought you should know."

"The same goes for me, sir. I was doing the same and am ready to face the consequences," Jean admitted bravely, standing solidly at Armin's side.

"Understood," Erwin said tersely, his own expression unreadable.

0 0 0

Levi never felt the absence of his knives more keenly than when he saw the look on Erwin's face when he reentered the cabin with Mikasa. "What's happened? Where are the shifters?" he demanded, counting heads and looking for injuries.

"It's OK," Hange assured him. "The shifters are outside, though Ymir's the only one who's coming with us. But Jean and Armin have something important to tell you."

Levi looked from her to Erwin to Jean and Armin, while Mikasa headed to the kitchen with the sack of rodents she'd caught.

"What the fuck is going on?" Levi demanded.

Armin took a deep breath, and looked him in the eye. "I lied to you. I made a false pledge, before, when I swore to be your knight. I was intending to betray you, to join Erwin or Pixis or Dok, whoever I had to, to stop you, to defend the King."

"And I did the same. But then after hearing what happened to Armin's parents, we're not sure what to do. But we wanted you to know you shouldn't trust us," Jean said bluntly.

Half of Levi's Life Lessons tore through his head at once:  
3\. Your name is a powerful weapon: make sure people fear it.

4\. Self reliance is the key to survival.

5\. Family makes you vulnerable.

6\. Kill anyone who is a danger to you. Never leave live enemies.

9\. If you don't trust anyone, you can never be betrayed.

Of all the people who might have ever betrayed him, Armin would have been dead last on a very short list. Armin, Mikasa and Eren had become family to him, the way Isabel and Furlan had.

A knife of pain far worse than his abused lungs or his bruised ribs tore through his chest. For a moment he thought he might actually be dying, that he was having a heart attack. He rubbed his chest, and the pain started to ease, so he knew it wasn't that, though he almost wished it was. First Erwin, and now Armin and Jean. Who else was he going to lose because of that damned title he'd never wanted? He should never have opened his fucking mouth.

"Shit! Levi, are you OK? Hange! Get over here!" Jean yelled.

Hange and Erwin both ran over. "What's wrong? Can you breathe?" Erwin demanded. It was the first sign he gave a damn that he lived since he'd confessed his secret.

"I'm fine. It's just stress. It's happened before, though it's been a while," Levi assured him. _Fucking wonderful. Like Erwin really needed to see another weakness. _

"We can carry you, if you need us to," Eren piped up from behind Jean.

_Shit._ He hadn't seen Eren get that close. Which meant he'd been ready to take out Jean and maybe even Armin. He felt a second bolt of pain but ignored it. He'd caused more than enough drama already.

"I said I'm fine, brat. You want to carry something, add a few more books to your pack," he snapped.

To his annoyance, Eren grinned at him. "That's more like it. I guess you really are OK."

Liam approached, a complicated device of metal and leather straps in his hands, one that Levi recognized in surprise. He'd thought the Titan had wrecked the leg brace beyond repair. He should have known better. This was Liam.

"It doesn't help that yer leg's been paining ye. We've rebuilt yer leg brace for ye. If ye'll take a seat, I'll put it on for ye," Liam offered.

Levi nodded, grateful for the excuse to sit. He frowned as Liam knelt on the floor in front of him. "I thought you said it was hard for you to rise after kneeling?"

Liam grinned. "Aye, it 'tis. But that doesn't mean I can't, when I've a need."

"But you didn't want to before," Levi commented.

"Nay. O' course not. It wasn't clear which way the wind was blowing. If the Commander had attacked you, I wanted ta be on my feet ta help defend ye," Liam murmured softly, so Erwin and the others wouldn't hear.

Levi looked Liam in the eye. "Erwin's not my enemy, Liam. I offered him my life years ago, after… when I first joined the Corps. If he wants to kill me, I'm not going to stop him."

Liam frowned at him. "Life's short enough as it 'tis. Ye shouldn't be so eager ta die. Ye're the one who reminded me o' that, sair."

Levi hated hearing his own words quoted back to him almost as much as he hated how good Liam's hands felt on his leg, how gentle, as he fastened the upper straps of the brace around his thigh. Liam's touch made him want things he couldn't have. Not Liam, but Erwin.

"My offer still stands, Levi. If the Commander is too proud ta want ye, that doesn't mean I'm so foolish," Liam offered softly.

Levi sighed. "I can't."

Liam smiled. "I know. But as you won't take the one gift, I've given you another," he said, touching the inside of Levi's thigh, drawing his attention to his hand. Levi's eyes widened as Liam's nimble fingers drew a slender dagger from a concealed sheath that was made to look like part of the straps of the brace, a blade he recognized. It had been his, until he'd given it to Liam, after Caity died.

"Aye, 'tis the one ye gave me, since ye won't be able ta retrieve any of yer own, now from the rubble o' the room. I've been meaning ta return it for some time now. I've no longer a need for it. 'Tis yours again, as long as ye swear ye won't ever put it ta the use ye gave it ta me for," Liam challenged.

Levi remembered forcing the blade into Liam's hand, after seeing him wasted away to almost nothing, refusing to eat from his grief over losing his sister. _"If you're going to kill yourself, use this. Do it quick and clean. Caity died a lingering death because she had no choice, but she fought for every second of her life. You have no right to die the way she did if it's because you're too much of a coward to continue living. If you're still man enough to be the brother she would have died to protect, then keep it, until you're no longer tempted to use it."_

Levi looked Liam in the eye. "I promise. Thank you."

Liam nodded. "Good. That's better. Oh, and ye might like to know that the Commander is giving me the evil eye. He took a fierce blow to his pride, but he still wants ye, and still thinks of ye as his, in spite of what ye fear."

Levi frowned at Liam as he realized what all this must have looked like to Erwin, now that he knew he was watching. Liam had always been a trickster, like one of the fae folk he believed in. When Levi stood and turned, Erwin was looking elsewhere. He never would have realized Erwin had been watching, had Liam not told him.

He tested the brace and was relieved to feel it working as well as before. His newly reinjured leg still hurt, but at least now his full strength, balance and most of his agility were restored. The brace might mean the difference between life and death, not only for him, but for anyone he aided.

0 0 0

Erwin fought to regain the false air of dispassionate calm, the stoic demeanor he was so well known for, which usually came so easily to him, as he felt fury burning hot and bright. Even assuming Levi had been unable to fasten the damned leg brace himself, that a man who had slipped on the complicated harness straps of his maneuver gear for years as easily as another man might tie his shoes couldn't figure out the relatively simple straps, those deliberate, lingering touches on the inside of Levi's thigh and the look the two men had shared was anything but innocent.

He turned away just in time to maintain his façade of unconcern. Apparently, now that Levi had revealed himself as not only nobility, but royalty, he had decided to assume their morality too, and was ready to fuck anything that moved. If it had been anyone other than O'Seanessey, someone who had lost a limb in service to the Corps, he would have… _What? Killed another man over a piece of ass? No. That's what a noble would do. You're better than that._

For the hundredth time Erwin wished Mike was with them. Mike didn't understand why he loved Levi, but like any true friend, he'd accepted it, and supported him. Meanwhile Hange, who was here beside him, had made her loyalty to Levi clear. Her betrayal had hurt almost as much as Levi's. The only other person he trusted enough to speak with here was Kearney, for other matters, but he was O'Seanessey's friend. _Although Kearney and Springer are the only ones who didn't pledged to Levi..._ And why the hell should that worry him, instead of relieve him? _I'm such a fool._

He suppressed all thoughts about Levi. He had a mission to lead, to the passageway, to Sina. Being distracted could get them all killed.


	48. Chapter 48 - Mending Fences and Building

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Greek translation:  
Toso, toso –  
Words to protect someone, to ward away the evil eye, to keep from tempting the Fates, who are tools of the gods, from acting against you, generally spoken after saying something complimentary or prideful about someone you love. Like an American superstitiously saying, "Knock on wood," to ward away misfortune, whether or not they physically perform that action.**

Chapter 48 – Mending Fences and Building Bridges

Levi led the column back down the mountain trail. They'd fed the squirrels and rabbits Mikasa had caught to the dogs, since they apparently ate regularly, due to their hunting instincts, although they had no need to, like the human shifters. Levi didn't want them hunting on the journey, straying too far from them, and possibly unintentionally leading enemy Titans to them, and the shifters had agreed.

He wished they'd had more time at the cabin, to learn more from the books and the shifters, but also, to reach some sort of understanding with Erwin. He hated that they were at odds, that Erwin was so distant now. Erwin was walking beside him, but wordlessly, and apart from him.

Levi picked up the pace, and thankfully, Erwin matched it, though it was likely because he didn't trust him enough to walk alone. Levi took advantage of the brief increase in distance from the rest of their men, who seemed to understand that he needed a little space.

"Mikasa told me I should arrest your father, and either abdicate the throne to you, or marry you and rule by your side, that we should change the laws to allow it. She said Pixis's Special Forces would love us for that. It wouldn't hurt to have them all on our side, not just the ones in the Corps," Levi stated softly, trying to draw a response from Erwin.

He was met with stony silence.

"If this was a fucking fairytale, and one of us was a woman, since you're a high ranking noble and I'm the Prince, we'd get to marry one another. Nothing would get in the way of true love. We'd still have evil fathers, and a knife wielding maniac and flesh-eating monsters after us, but our knights would protect us and good would triumph over evil.

"Tch. Even when I was a spoiled rich brat, I knew those stories were bullshit. But I used to love hearing my mom read them to me anyway, because **she** believed them. You could hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes, her smile. I was so happy for her, that she got to live her dream, until it turned into a nightmare, and killed her," Levi said bitterly.

Erwin still didn't respond. He hadn't said a word to him directly, other than an order, since threatening to kill him and the others for treason.

"Look, you sanctimonious shit, it's not like you didn't hide who you really were from me, too. You're a fucking Reiss," he snapped in frustration.

"So when we were on the road to the Capital and you and Arlert were talking about banned books, and you told him, 'The bluer the blood, the brighter red when it flows,' you weren't just threatening the nobility, you were threatening the King," Erwin said, far too quietly.

Levi winced as he remembered what he'd said, before he'd known Erwin was a Reiss. He remembered every damned and damning word. _"There you go inciting rebellion again, Armin. Of course __**they're**__ allowed to read them. But we're barely even human to those fuckers. 'The puny minds of the huddled masses wouldn't be able to understand the complex concepts written in them.'"_

He's said the last line in an imitation of his father's haughty and pretentious voice, and right afterwards, talked about gutting the bastard. He hated that he'd been stupid enough to love that asshole, before he betrayed him and his mother and tossed them out into the icy rain to live or die, without a backward glance, all because of Kenny's lies. Rudolf Franz was his father, not Kenny Ackerman.

"Tell me that you're any different," Levi challenged. "You told me how your father forced your mother into his bed, by threatening her family. Once you learned your birthright, you knew to hate him, but you were lucky. You hadn't even met him before that.

"It's only once I lost my birthright that I learned to hate my father, after I'd spent the first seven years of my life loving the snooty, obnoxious fucker. I was just an ignorant, oblivious, stupid, spoiled little brat. I had no idea what the world was really like, how a huge chunk of humanity was starving in the dark, barely surviving, in filth and squalor. And then I found out the hard way," Levi said bitterly, the pain of those memories still easily gutting him, in spite of the intervening years.

"I dreaded telling you I was a Reiss for years. I let you think I was a minor noble, after you accidentally learned that much about me. And all that time, you were a Franz," Erwin said, with a self-deprecating shake of his head.

"I was never a Franz. I was always a Papadreaos, just like you are a Smith. Our mothers were the ones who named us, raised us, loved us. Our fathers never did. We were just pawns to them, heirs, their immortality, a way for the world to remember them after they're gone. Only they're going to be gone a lot sooner than they expect. Mine, anyway, though I'd be more than happy to kill yours, too," Levi offered.

"Would you really?" Erwin asked, turning to face him and looking him in the eye, the sudden intensity of his formerly impassive gaze more disturbing than reassuring.

Levi started in surprise. "You want me to kill your father?"

"No. I mean, would you really be happy? Does killing make you happy? The Titans, your father, Kenny Ackerman?"

"You're leaving a few hundred people off that list, but no. Killing has never made me happy. I'm not like that sick fucker Kenny. Killing humans in the Underground was necessary to survive. Killing Titans beyond the Walls was necessary for the future of humanity, and I'd had no idea they used to **be **human. Killing the fuckers who betrayed us and have set you up to be executed is necessary. But happiness… happiness isn't murder for me. It's people. Friends. Family. You, Hange, Mikasa, Sasha, Armin, Liam, Eren, Jean, even Connie, Stavros, Andreas and Nikolaos, maybe even Anders and Bauer. It used to be Furlan, Isabel, Caity, Günther, Petra, Eld, Oluo. Fuck, that's terrifying. For the first time in my life, I have more live friends than dead ones. _Toso, toso._ Although that's only because I let so few people get that close. It looks like I'm getting soft, in my old age."

Erwin frowned. "What does_ toso_ mean? Is that Greek?"

Levi sighed. He'd seen how much it had pissed Erwin off that he knew Greek. No, it was more that he'd known it, and Erwin hadn't known he had.

"Yeah. It's something my mother used to say. _Toso toso_ is supposed to keep bad things from happening to you. It's to ward off the evil eye. Back in the days of Ancient Greece, it was dangerous to boast about anything good in your life, for fear of offending the gods, of making them jealous, or tempting them to fuck up your life, just because they could. They were cruel, vindictive fuckers. You were never supposed to say something positive about someone you loved, because if you sounded too boastful or prideful, they'd take it from you. You weren't likely to live long if you challenged or annoyed the gods. Imagine someone like Kenny, who really did have the power of a god, and wasn't just some crazy asshole."

"For someone who doesn't believe in God, or the gods, you seem to know a lot about religious myths," Erwin commented.

Levi knew he was referring to the _Dante's Inferno_ references he'd deciphered back at the Yeager's basement in Shiganshina as well. "Yeah, well, 'Know thine enemy,' right? Just because I don't believe they're real doesn't mean they aren't. Especially when bastards like you are wandering around, like Zeus or Apollo, fucking with us poor powerless mortals. Doesn't mean I won't try to kick the teeth in of any god stupid enough to mess with me," Levi replied.

"If I recall, you were the one who ended up with the face full of mud," Erwin automatically countered.

"That wasn't mud and you know it, you fucker. Next time you get to be the one eating shit," Levi snapped.

0 0 0

Eren looked uncertainly at Mikasa as they continued down the overgrown, tree lined mountain trail. "Are you sure? That doesn't sound like making up to me," he said dubiously, listening to Erwin and Levi. He and Mikasa were directly behind them. Though they'd given them a little space, at Mikasa's insistence, they could still hear everything, after the first few words.

Mikasa's lips creased in a brief smile. "Erwin's talking to Levi again. Trying to understand what's happened, and to work around it, the way he always does, finding a way to come out on top in spite of ridiculous odds. He could have just ordered Levi to shut up, or to go to the rear of the column. Erwin doesn't want them to be enemies. The words themselves don't matter as much as the fact they're communicating again. They're both just trying to save face. This hasn't been easy on either of them. Keeping secrets is the quickest way to destroy a relationship."

"I'd never keep secrets from you. You know that, right?" Eren asked anxiously. The last thing he needed was to upset Mikasa, especially when Armin was already so confused.

She smiled softly at him. "I know," she assured him.

"You're so amazing. You're still just the same. You've been turned into a Titan, and it hasn't changed you at all. Hange too. Actually, if anything, she seems less manic now," Eren said, shaking his head in amazement.

"You paved the way, Eren. Remember, we didn't even know about Titan shifters until you, that people could become Titans. If you weren't so strong, especially considering the way you hated Titans, that could have driven you insane, but you didn't let it. Don't sell yourself short," Mikasa chided.

"Yeah. I guess," Eren agreed. But he still thought Mikasa was handling it much better than he had. "At least now we have Reiner and the others to teach us. Except they're leaving, right? So just Ymir. Come on. Let's drop back and talk to Reiner while we have the chance," he urged.

Mikasa smiled as she looked behind them. "It looks like Hange has the same idea."

Sure enough, Hange was chattering excitedly and grinning, waving her hands around like a maniac. Eren could hear her, as they approached.

"… special powers are?" Hange stated. "Oh! Mikasa! I was just speculating about you. I verified that heightened intellect and the ability to speak are probably my special Titan power, though they told me I might manifest something physical too. But I was just wondering what yours and Eren's abilities are.

"I think for Eren it might be seeing in the dark, and the way his eyes glow, plus toughness or agility, but those latter two, the physical perfection of his body, might just be simple genetics. I'm eager to see your Titan form and study it. The only human who's seen it is Armin, and he doesn't remember. I can't wait to run a whole new host of experiments, when we get back to base."

"Actually, Reiner, Bertolt, Marcel, Ymir, we were hoping you could give us some advice about how to maintain awareness and control in Titan form," Mikasa said. "I know you said it comes with practice, but are there any techniques you use before or during your shift that help? Meditation, or concentration, or focus? We know that Eren's shifts have been most successful when he has a single, clear task in mind before the shift, but it doesn't always work. He's gotten much better at it, but earlier, when he wasn't able to complete a task, finishing clearing up a cave in, he lost control, and in Shiganshina, at first he wasn't willing to move the boulder from in front of the basement door," Mikasa explained, smiling apologetically at Eren.

"Concentration, focus and need are all key," Marcel agreed. "Just as you've discovered, having a simple, clear goal is vital. If you need to do something complex, breaking it up into smaller, simple steps is crucial. The problem comes from two places: when there is any kind of deviation from that plan, something preventing you from achieving the goal, or when your emotions and animal instincts overwhelm your intellect."

"Exactly. From what we heard about what you did, Hange, with Levi, that was an outstanding first shift," Bertolt praised. "As you were dying, your overwhelming desire was to help Levi, so when you shifted, you were still focused on him, on that goal. So your Titan followed his scent, his trail, from the City, all the way up the mountain. But what makes it all the more amazing is, when you found Armin, instead of being frustrated, or tossing him aside as unimportant, you presented him to Levi as a gift you knew he'd want. That level of awareness, of control, so early on in the process… It's like nothing we've ever seen."

"Yeah. I mean, all of us are smart," Reiner stated. "You don't get into the Special Forces if you aren't. You need to know about psychology, tactics, languages, mechanics – a host of things. I've got a Masters in Organic Chemistry and Berties's got a Bachelor in Communications, but Marcel, he's a true genius: he's got a double Bachelor, in Psychology and Mechanical Engineering. That's really rare, you know? But he says people are just like another kind of machine, that the key is understand how they're put together. We all would have gotten our Ph.D.'s if it wasn't for the War. But still, you're even smarter than Marcel, Hange, more like an Einstein or a da Vinci. We've only seen someone with your level of intellect as a shifter once before, and thankfully, that fucker dropped off the map a long time ago."

"Wars used to be between different factions of humans, right? So he was an enemy?" Mikasa hazarded.

"Shit yeah. Though he wasn't supposed to be. He was our commanding officer, before the shit hit the fan. All of ours, I mean. Annie's too. General Robert Leonhart," Reiner said acerbically.

Eren's eyes widened. "Annie's father? Didn't you say that was his name?"

"Yeah. The driving force behind and head of Project Cronos. I still say the reason he created the entire damned Project was to artificially turn Annie into his vision of perfection, when she wasn't able to attain his insane standards any other way," Reiner said bitterly. "He was certainly insistent that our Squad be the first test subjects, for the clinical trials. Mainly because after the canine trial, the Project was on the verge of being shut down as too impractical, too costly, not to mention, too immoral and unethical.

"Human experimentation has always been frowned upon, but when the military is the one doing it, people are even more leery of it. But anyway, after the Beta Squad clusterfuck, once they figured out what went wrong, they continued with Gamma and Delta at one of the back-up facilities. After that, they called it Epsilon, but it wasn't a Squad, it was just a bunch of handpicked volunteers, most of them upper level officers who were afraid of dying. From what we heard, they cranked out teams all the way down to Lambda, before all the back-up laboratory facilities were overrun and destroyed.

"We wonder sometimes who else is still alive from back then. I mean, we know a few of them still are, from the radio messages, but we wonder if any of them survived outside the Sanctuaries," Reiner explained. Then he turned to face only Mikasa.

"Ymir told us that Hikan Kyaku was your mother, that that was her code name. You don't really sound anything like her. I never would have guessed that angel's voice that kept us connected to the rest of the world was the mom of a kid I'd end up serving with. She'd have been really proud of you, Mikasa, of all you've done," Reiner said sincerely.

Mikasa looked overwhelmed and then anxious. "But she died, and the messages stopped. So do the other Sanctuaries think we've been destroyed? Have they written us off? Is that dangerous for us, in any way?"

Reiner, Marcel, Bertolt and Ymir shared a look that made Eren's heart race. "What?" Eren demanded.

Bertolt sighed. "We're not sure. We know the Japanese Sanctuary was working with the Hawaiian and Australian ones on trying to develop new weapons to use against the Titans, worldwide, but we don't know whether they were conventional, nuclear, biological, chemical, or something else. We don't know whether we should reestablish contact or not. Because after what we've done, we'll probably be seen as war criminals, and the fact that you, Mikasa and Hange exist, but aren't part of the military hierarchy… You're unknown quantities with a dangerous level of power. They may see not only us, but all of you, as a threat to humanity. And it was already more than a little likely that whatever they created to wipe out the Titans would wipe out _all_ the Titans, including us."

"And you didn't think maybe you should warn us about that, you prick?" Levi's cold voice challenged from behind Eren. Eren spun and was shocked to see both Levi and Erwin had snuck up behind them.

Erwin was surveying them coolly. "I thought you agreed to work with us, not to keep more secrets."

Reiner threw up his hands. "What the fuck do you want from us? Bertolt and I just told them, didn't we? And it's not like I didn't realize you were listening, like I didn't see you approaching. You already want to see us dead. Are we really supposed to provide you with more ammunition? I don't care what happens to me, I told you that, but I'll kill every fucking last one of you, every goddamned human left on this miserable stinking planet before I let any of you touch Marcel, Bertolt and Ymir," he threatened.

Otto and Hans, who had been walking silently beside him bristled, their hackles raising, and began growling menacingly at them, apparently picking up on the tension behind the threat.

Eren heard the distinctive singing sound of blades sliding from their scabbards, and spun. Sasha was interposing herself between the dogs and Connie, who had bladed his swords, and looked ready to spring at them.

Marcel stepped between Sasha and the dogs, his hands out and down in a placating gesture, muttering commands in German to the canine shifters, although he was facing Reiner. "Reiner, stop! You don't mean that. You can't mean that. Our whole reason for existing is to protect everyone who's left. You need to calm down. Walk with me. Bertie, you come too.

"Commander, we should go now, like we planned. Only Ymir was going to go with you the rest of the way to Sina. Please, my uncle's been through so much, but he's just mouthing off. He'd never do what he threatened," Marcel swore.

"He and Hoover have already caused the death of a quarter of a million people they'd sworn to protect," Erwin snapped, to Eren's shock, the Commander's normal diplomacy flying out the window.

Bertolt paled, but Marcel, who had seemed so astonishingly gentle before, even more so than Bertolt, balled his hands into fists and glared at Erwin, looking ready to tear him apart.

"Shit, fuck! Erwin, stop!" Levi cursed, interposing himself between them, trying to reason with Erwin, instead of challenging Marcel for threatening him. "This is my fault, damn it! I'm the one you're angry with, not them. You can't fuck up like this. I won't let you."

And then suddenly Sasha was there, between Levi and Marcel. "Marcel, please. You don't want this, none of us do. You rescued me, remember? You gave your life, trying to save Shiganshina from the plague. We don't want you as our enemies, any of you, but especially not Reiner and Bertolt and Ymir. They're part of our family, part of the 104th, part of the Corps. We've already lost so many friends and brothers and sisters. And you're their family, so you're part of our family too.

"Reiner, remember how you said you were sick of all the death, how you were willing to sacrifice yourself to stop it? Please. Everyone just needs to step back and calm down. Leave now if you need to, instead of going all the way to the edge of the woods near the Wall with us, but don't leave angry with us," she pleaded.

"Shit, Sasha. That's some silver tongue you've got, little girl," Reiner claimed, sounding both weary and admiring. "Marcel, calm down. If we all go postal, everything we've done, all you and Bertie have suffered through, is for nothing, and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Levi and Blouse are right," Erwin admitted. "Please forgive me, Braun, Braun, Hoover. These past few years have been hard on all of us, and the past few days exceptionally challenging. But we can't afford to allow our personal concerns to color our objectivity. In order for any of us to survive, we need one another. We need to work together. We're all human, we all make mistakes, but I will do my utmost to ensure I don't make another one of this magnitude," he swore.

Marcel nodded, his hands relaxing, even as Reiner further calmed Hans and Otto. "We'll still accompany you to the edge of the woods near the tunnel entrance," Marcel offered in appeasement.

"Thank you," Erwin said.

"Alright. So we're good, right?" Levi challenged, looking from one face to another.

There were a handful of terse nods in reply.

"Connie?" Sasha urged softly.

With a glare he sheathed his blades. "Alright," he grudgingly agreed, and they resumed their trek.


	49. Chapter 49 - Parting Ways

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 49 – Parting Ways

As they continued down the trail, Hange peered owlishly at Erwin and he sighed, knowing he was going to regret saying something. "You have an observation to make?"

"I know why you got upset enough to say something provoking to Braun, and I'm not sure you realize why," Hange replied.

He waited, but to his surprise, she didn't volunteer her opinion. _Since when doesn't Hange blurt out the first thing on her mind? If she's somehow developing a filter… _

Erwin didn't know how he felt about that. It should have been a relief, but he was so used to hearing Hange's candid thoughts, he realized now that he'd always relied upon her bluntness and brutal honesty. She always cut right to the heart of the matter, saying what others tiptoed around.

"Go ahead," he prodded.

"Levi lying to you isn't really what's upsetting you, or even the others pledging their allegiance to him, instead of you," she claimed. "It's that all this time, you thought he was a commoner, just an average, ordinary man, the kind you once were, that you always wanted to be again, the kind you've dedicated your life to fighting for. And then you find out he's not. Instead, he outranks you. You wanted to be his knight in shining armor, the one to save him, and instead, he's going to be your King."

The arguments Erwin had been mentally preparing as she spoke fell unvoiced from his tongue. He was going to argue that Levi was extraordinary, not ordinary, or that, as a Lurker, he was, in terms of human rights, even more downtrodden than a commoner aboveground, but the rest of her argument made those points sound like the pathetic protests they were. Because she was right. Every word. He'd never felt more superfluous in his life. Levi was no helpless victim. Levi didn't need saving.

It was something Mike would have told him. Which only made him that much more disgusted with himself, that he hadn't sought Hange's counsel earlier, when he'd first been tempted to, because he'd assumed she would side with Levi, or support him, or… _Sometimes, Smith, you're an idiot. _The thought was his, but the voice he heard it in was Levi's, which just proved the words all the more true.

"But his rank doesn't change anything. Levi still needs you, Erwin. Now more than ever. And you need him." She peered into his eyes with her accustomed intensity, which others found so unnerving, even disturbing. "I'm still loyal to you, Erwin. So is Levi. We'd die for you. You know that, right?"

He sighed heavily. "I'd like to believe that. Not the dying part. I don't want either of you to die, ever. "

"Believe it. It's true. And our Sanctuary needs you, both of you. We just have to put you in power, as co-rulers," Hange claimed, as if it would be a simple thing to do.

"What about Pixis? You think he's just going to step aside and watch that happen?" Erwin challenged.

"Yes. Why do you think he gave you two hundred men? A few words in the right ear, after the ambush, and he could have gotten the Corps dissolved. Or replaced you as its leader, installed Stephanos or Grunwald, especially when your head wasn't screwed on straight, because of your concussion and the trauma. Instead, he supported you and protected you from your political enemies. He restocked our barracks and our stables," she argued.

"Even assuming I don't want Franz to stay in power, I don't want to start a bloody civil war. That's the last thing our slice of humanity needs," Erwin argued.

"So aim for a bloodless coup. Hit them so fast and hard and unexpectedly with such force that it's a done deal before anyone can stop you. Or better yet, get the people on your side. Expose Franz for the conniving, duplicitous, power hungry asshole he is.

"It's his fault Trost was attacked and Wall Rose nearly fell. Make sure the people know that. Pixis can help you. He's devious, clever, brilliant. There's probably all kinds of additional information in those journals and Radio Message Logs, evidence we can use against the King and nobles," Hange urged.

"What about Springer and Kearney, and Arlert and Kirstein?" Erwin challenged softly. "And Mike?"

"Oh please! Like Mike wouldn't support you. He's your brother in all but blood. Connie isn't going to act against Sasha, and Armin and Jean will come around. As for Connell, he's too smart a man to side with the King. And the government hasn't exactly taken the best care of the soldiers who left the Corps on medical discharges. Whereas you'll make certain they all receive lifetime pensions, houses specially adapted for limb loss, prosthetic limb replacements if they want them, and training to start new lives, for those who can handle it and want it," Hange assured him.

Erwin was shocked. She'd gone beyond what he had planned to do for those men. "So if Levi becomes King and finds a place for me, you'll be one of his advisors?" he asked hopefully.

"On scientific, psychological, humanitarian and Titan issues? Sure," Hange agreed. "Mike will be the head of the Royal Guard, protecting you both. Stephanos or Grunwald will be the new head of the Corps. You'll need a personal physician. I'd recommend Donaldson. Sasha can be in charge of the palace kitchen staff. Anyone who wanted to poison you would never make it past her. Hypatia will head your new education and public library program. You'll want to bring all the Lurkers aboveground and provide training for them too, of course. Armin can help her with that. Mikasa will be your new ambassador to the other Sanctuaries, restoring the radio connection to the outside world. And Eren can be your ambassador to the Titan shifters on the outside, to Hoover and the two Brauns. And you'll make sure the rest of everyone has a place, unless they want to stay in the Corps."

Erwin stared at her, stunned.

"What? It's not like I need to sleep anymore, right? I had a lot of time last night to picture the future, to work out how things should be," Hange explained.

"Obviously," Erwin agreed, more than a little overwhelmed.

0 0 0

Mikasa was relieved when Reiner, Bertolt and Marcel parted ways with them at the base of the mountain, at the edge of the woods, just before the open grassland leading to where they judged the hidden Nu Gate to be. Thankfully they hadn't run into a single Titan on the trail.

Tensions didn't ease, of course, since now they'd be crossing the grassy plain, and that much more visible and susceptible to Titan attack. A number of Titans, at least fifty and possibly closer to seventy, if there were a number of smaller ones hidden amongst the big ones, were clustered around the newly re-blocked Inner Gate of Shiganshina, as if wondering what had happened to block the Gate, though more likely, they were smelling the vestigial trace of their scent, their presence. Regardless, hopefully the blocked Inner Gate would hold their attention.

Ymir was carrying the radio crate and the rest of them were weighed down somewhat by the books they were each carrying in their packs. They wouldn't be able to all drop their packs to fight if a large number of Titans attacked them this time. The orders were, if someone dropped his pack, someone else retrieved it, and the other person was left to fight on his or her own. They couldn't risk losing the three or four books that might be the key to everything, that might hold the information they so desperately needed. She, Eren, Levi, Hange, Ymir and Kearney hadn't been given the latter option by Erwin.

"Remember, move quickly, but don't run – it will draw their attention faster. Levi, Yeager, you take the lead. Ymir, you're in the middle with me, Hange and Kearney. Ackerman, you're in the rear with Anders and Bauer. Only shift if the situation is grave. We don't need to attract more Titans than whatever we might be facing, especially not with such a large concentration of them so nearby. The rest of you, protect those three positions, break off and engage as needed, to allow the rest of us time to reach the tunnel," Erwin commanded tersely, as if they hadn't already hashed out the plan before, on the way down. "We can't afford to lose any of our major assets, the radio, the books, or the shifters."

"Yes sir!" a chorus of voices acknowledged the order, some of them verifying their expendability. Not that Erwin wanted to lose any of his men. And hopefully this time, it wouldn't be inevitable, though the idea they might actually make it back to the Underground, to Sina, without losing anyone was almost inconceivable to Mikasa. Disaster had the habit of striking when they least expected it.

They were crouched down, wading through the nearly knee high grass of the plain, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, halfway to the Gate, away from the better strategic vantage point of the woods, when to their shock, the entire cluster of Titans around the Gate simultaneously turned and began running along the inside of Wall Maria towards their position en masse. They were trying to cut them off from Nu Gate! It was the ambush of their last mission all over again!

Mikasa scanned the other directions frantically as she broke into a run. No, they were only coming from a single direction this time. But then she caught a glimpse of Shiganshina's Inner Gate and her stomach fell to her boots as she realized to her horror it was no longer blocked. Dozens of additional Titans were pouring out from the shattered City. _Did Reiner and Bertolt do this? Did they betray us? Or set this up, before they decided to work with us?_

Her fears were confirmed when Quicksilver and the Armored exploded from the rim of the forest, until she heard Bertolt yelling, and realized he was riding on the Armored's shoulder. "Get to the Gate! Run, don't shift! We'll keep them off of you!"

She realized they were angling towards the onrushing horde not to join them, to lead them, but to intercept them, to fight them, even as she belatedly realized the Titans weren't looking at them, but up. In sudden sick realization, she looked up too, to the top of the Wall, and saw a flash of blond hair, as a chillingly familiar figure leapt off the top of the Wall, rappelled down with her maneuver gear, and then shifted with a flash of chartreuse light.

The Female Titan erupted up from in front of the oncoming army, running towards their only escape. Ice Queen. Annie. Somehow she'd escaped, she was leading the charge, and was about to take revenge for her imprisonment and interrogation.

Mikasa tore off her pack and thrust it into Anders' arms. "Run! Save the books!" And then she bit her hand, flooding her mouth with her own blood.

0 0 0

Levi saw Eren's shock and denial turn to fury akin to his own, as that murdering bitch Leonhart rappelled down the Wall, shifted into a Titan, and continued to lead the attack she had initiated from the top of the Wall. Levi barely tackled Eren in time, before he could bite his hand. "Damn it, stick to the plan!" he yelled.

Then he cursed as a flash of yellow-green light behind him indicated a shift. Levi assumed it was Ymir, that she was joining her old squadmates, but the towering ebony haired giant he saw running towards the Titan army definitely wasn't Ymir. She wasn't a hideous monster. Or even only almost human looking, like Hange in Titan form. She was beyond human, breathtaking. The only woman he'd ever thought of as beautiful before was his mother, and Hypatia, because she looked so much like her it hurt. But this was different. Mikasa in her Titan form was like a goddess come to Earth.

It was like looking at Artemis bathing in a forest pool or Aphrodite rising from the sea. Mikasa's Titan form had the lean muscles of a warrior, her skin a healthy glow glistening with wetness different than Quicksilver's: clear, not golden. Her face was perfection, her natural beauty heightened to a painful degree – she looked human, not monstrous – but her expression was intent, her black eyes determined and deadly. She ran and leapt, with such speed and grace and power, for a moment he thought she was actually flying. A second leap and she was already at the Titan army, engaging the Female Titan.

The Female Titan didn't bother dodging Ackerman Titan's fist, which hit her with the full force of her leap, she just turned her cheek to diamond hard crystal and slammed a fist into her opponent's stomach. Ackerman Titan went tumbling backwards, and the Female Titan followed up with a kick, a crystal encrusted leg that looked like it would tear Mikasa in half. Levi's heart almost stopped until he saw Quicksilver flash up beside Ackerman Titan, grabbing her by the arm and flinging her safely out of the way, a split second before impact.

And then something chilling and unexpected happened. The Female Titan screamed, not the way she had in the woods, to get the other Titans to attack and eat her, but as if she was in agony, cupping her cheek, as if Ackerman Titan's blow had suddenly registered.

_What the fuck?_

Then Levi realized what he was seeing behind the combatants, and he felt horror war with fury: the blocked Inner Gate was no longer blocked, and from the Titans pouring in from Shiganshina, the Outer Gate had either been reopened as well, or that bitch had somehow lured dozens of Titans inside from this side, to spring her trap.

Then two enormous, snarling, ferocious hellhounds dove into the chaos, their roaring barks echoing off the Wall. Connie screamed and crumpled into a cowering ball, though the shifted Titan dogs were nowhere near him, and Sasha immediately tried to comfort him, though she was shaking so hard herself that she could barely stand.

Levi cursed as a triple flash of chartreuse light arced around him, and he realized Ymir, Hange and Eren had all transformed while he was distracted, as they began running towards the battle.

"Mikasa! Eren!" Armin screamed, running towards the thankfully still distant battle, the Titans clustered around the shifter combatants, instead of continuing their charge.

"Armin, no!" Jean cried in panic, tackling him.

"Damn it, follow orders! Ymir, Yeager, Hange, stand down and retreat! That's an order! Stick to the plan! We need to get the radio and books inside!" Erwin roared.

Of the three, only Hange Titan turned and headed back towards them. "Sor-ry. Pro-tect. In-side," Hange agreed, picking up the crated radio gently between the thumb and forefinger of her left hand and standing over them.

Every instinct in Levi screamed at him to run towards the battle after Mikasa and Eren, but he turned for the Wall instead. "Now, while they're distracted!" Levi ordered, reinforcing Erwin's command.

They began to run for the Wall. Levi forced himself to focus on it. They needed to find the Nu Gate and hope Leonhart hadn't destroyed it. He ignored the roaring and screaming coming from the battle, while periodically darting glances to ensure no Titans were approaching. Thankfully Banshee's wail was too far away to adversely affect them.

When Levi finally reached the Wall he began searching frantically for the owl with the others, for their earlier footprints, wishing now they'd blatantly marked the opening. Then he saw the jagged fresh pile of rock two dozen meters to the right, where smooth Wall should have been, and he realized his search was over and his earlier fear about Leonhart had been justified. Apparently she was taking no chances that some or all of them might escape, and had risked revealing her treachery, if they'd seen the caved in entrance before the ambush struck. "What the fuck are we supposed to do now?" he snapped in frustration as he ran to the blocked entrance with the others who'd spotted it.

"Move, Le-vi," Hange said, emphasizing the command by picking him up and gently depositing him three meters away from where he'd been, setting the radio crate beside him. Then she reached into the rubble with both hands, snatched up handfuls of shattered wall, and tossed them carefully aside, where no Scouts were standing.

Levi scrabbled for one of the torches in his pack and his Corps lighter, and lit it here in the daylight, where he could still see.

It only took four handfuls of shattered stone to reveal the darkened tunnel entrance, the ancient, intricate mechanism of the Gate shattered to rubble. They'd just have to hope there weren't any other obstructions deeper in.

With a final haunted look back at the battle, Levi whispered, "Don't die brats," and then he ran inside.

0 0 0

Erwin's pounding heart started to calm the moment he saw Levi head into the passageway. He couldn't believe Levi hadn't run off to fight the Female Titan, especially since Yeager and Ackerman were both engaging the enemy Titans. Erwin was as shocked that Historia hadn't left with Ymir as well, though he could see from the anguish on her face what it cost her to stay with them. Either she knew she'd be a liability, or she had done it for the sake of the bigger picture. He knew it couldn't have been solely for his sake, because she knew that she and Ymir alone could protect him from the false charges against him.

"We need to get to the canal and hope there aren't any blockages or booby traps or ambushes waiting for us, that the boats haven't been smashed," Erwin ordered, as he passed the others and joined Levi at the front of the column.

"But what about Eren and Mikasa? We can't just leave them out there!" Arlert demanded.

"If they'd followed orders, we wouldn't have to," Erwin snapped coldly.

"They'll catch up to us," Levi assured him. "Hopefully once the Female Titan realizes that's Quicksilver she's facing, she'll cease her attack and help them defeat the rest of the enemy."

"How did Annie escape?" Jean demanded. "Does this mean she killed the MPs guarding her?"

"We'll find out soon enough. Hange, turn human again and get in here!" Levi yelled, facing the exit shadowed by her presence. Then he cursed and dove for the doorway, apparently realizing she'd need to be cut out of her Titan body.

But to Erwin's astonishment, fortunately, the doglike loyalty that had sent Hange out after Levi from Shiganshina had her appearing in the doorway, human again, but looking confused. She'd miraculously managed the shift back all on her own, and was conscious and aware.

Kearney beat Levi to her, urging her inside. "You're an astonishing woman, Zoe, but I think you're about to be dressed down for disobeying the Commander's orders. Although then you followed his and the Captain's," he assured her, as he guided her to Levi.

"What happened? Why aren't I fighting? Did we already win?" Hange asked in confusion. Her eyes widened as she looked around. "Oh no! Where are Eren, Mikasa and Ymir?" she asked in concern and dismay.

"Disobeying orders and fighting," Erwin replied. "Come on. We don't want to remain near the entrance, where Leonhart can cave the Wall in on us."

"You dug the entrance clear," Levi explained to Hange.

Levi and Kearney answered some more of Hange's questions as they headed down the sloped passageway, into the darkness, the way illuminated by their torches.

"So you just left them out there?" Hange demanded indignantly. "Even if Leonhart starts fighting with them, instead of against them, after seeing Quicksilver, there were dozens of Titans!"

"But they're nearly mindless, except for Leonhart, and the shifters had the dogs with them, too," Levi rationalized.

"They'd better survive. Mikasa Ackerman is our one hope of reestablishing contact, using that radio," Erwin stated clinically.

"No, she's not, actually. We know the frequency, and her mother's Japanese books are in her pack. I'm going to start learning Japanese as soon as I can. It's important that more than one person knows the language anyway. We saw what happened when only one did," Hange contradicted.

"How can you say that? You don't care about Mikasa or Eren at all, not as people! They're just tools to you, all of you! We all are!" Armin yelled angrily.

"Don't act so surprised, brat. We're all tools. That's what soldiers are, all they've ever been, tools, weapons of whatever government wields them," Levi replied calmly, bitterly. "Hell, civilians are too. The farmers grow the food, the soldiers protect the land, the food, and the farmers. But it's either live together as tools, or die alone as victims. Someone, somewhere is always going to exploit you."

"No. You're not like that. You lived alone, in the Underground. You didn't answer to anyone or exploit anyone," Armin argued.

"Bullshit. I preyed off of everyone around me. Furlan and Isabel were my tools, and I got them killed, when we all became Erwin's. Now I'm going to be King, and I'm going to use every last one of you, until you break. I'll do the same to Eren and Mikasa, if they come back, if I haven't already broken them. But they were defective tools anyway, actually thinking for themselves instead of blindly following the orders that would get their fellow shifters, their friends, their new family, killed. Erwin tends to collect damaged tools, in case you hadn't noticed, brat," Levi said wearily.

Levi's words were disturbing. This wasn't the Levi that Erwin was used to. He sounded defeated, broken, like someone going through the motions, knowing he was going to die, and no longer caring.

"That's not right. I can hear you in my head, telling me not to say something like that, only you're the one who just said it," Hange said, scowling in disapproving confusion at Levi.

Erwin had no idea what Hange was talking about, other than he agreed that Levi normally wouldn't sound like that. Fortunately Levi seemed to know what she meant.

The hopeless, broken look in Levi's eyes vanished, replace with steely-eyed determination. "You're right. Armin, forget everything I just said. I was just talking out of my ass. We can't go back outside, because we need to see the books and radio safe. Besides, if I see that bitch Leonhart, I'll kill her, and we probably need her alive. The shifters are the ones who need to punish her, if they're going to. Come on. We need to double-time it to the canal, and there's no telling what we'll find along the way, or once we get there."

Erwin thanked the God he no longer believed in that Levi sounded like himself again. He couldn't do this without Levi.


	50. Chapter 50 - Intent to Kill

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Oh my gosh! I've broken 100,000 views for **_**Outmaneuvered!**_** If you like my **_**Shingeki no Kyojin**_**, **_**D. Gray-Man/Karneval,**_** and **_**Soul Eater**_** stories, you might also enjoy my published original four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, which includes strong female, multi-ethnic, bisexual and gay characters, and is available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner. It's a tale of lost kingdoms, valiant and desperate heroes, and epic battles and quests, in a medieval world populated by humans, Elves, Dwarves, Ogres and mythical beasts, battling a god-like insane necromancer and his army of the dead.**

Chapter 50 – Intent to Kill

From his perch on White Knight's shoulder, as they thundered up to the battle, Bertolt saw Mikasa in her Titan form make two incredible leaps, and land in front of Ice Queen, her fist flying towards her face with all the inertia of her jump. Ice Queen didn't even try to dodge; she simply formed a crystal barrier on her cheek, and took the blow, countering with her own punch to Mikasa's stomach, and then following up with a vicious kick that could well have torn Mikasa in two, had Quicksilver not grabbed her by the arm and flung her safely away at the last moment.

But then, shockingly, Ice Queen screamed. Bertolt stared in horrified fascination at her, as she clutched her steaming cheek, and then started digging frantically at her face, ripping off shattered, blackened, burnt, vile smelling crystal, along with lumps of flesh, and then frantically digging into the grassy plain at her feet with both hands.

_What happened to her face? Did Mikasa do that? What is she digging for?_

He saw Quicksilver watching her too, and then he lifted his palms and stared at them, his eyes swimming with confusion. To Bertolt's horror he saw that the slick, golden sheen that normally covered Quicksilver's palms had turned a sickly greenish black and was starting to steam.

"Wipe it off, Quicksilver! It's acid, or poison!" Bertolt urged. Apparently, the wetness coating Mikasa was toxic to anyone but her, but thankfully, Quicksilver's own secretion had apparently protected him somewhat. To his relief, he saw Quicksilver do as he'd urged. He probably would have done so anyway, though physical sensation was more muted in Titan form, and thinking somewhat more ponderous.

At his words Ice Queen's face jerked upwards, even as Banshee tore into the three Titans that had been about to overwhelm their fallen commander.

"Ice Queen, Annie, stop! Look! Marcel's alive, he's safe, he's here, with us! The Corps helped us find him, rescue him! It was all a tragic mistake! The human's behind the Walls aren't our enemies! We don't have to fight them anymore!" Bertolt urged, even as he used his gear to grapple a Titan that tried to attack White Knight from behind, and sliced a neat chunk out of the back of its neck, as White Knight plowed into half a dozen other Titans and Yeager Titan punched the heads off four others, in rapid succession.

Bertolt didn't want to shift yet, he needed to wait and use his power wisely, in case he needed to attack Ice Queen, if seeing Marcel was still alive didn't stop her attack. He was the only one who had a hope of defeating her, of getting past her crystal armor.

He risked glancing back, expecting to see Captain Levi slipping through the grass towards them, but he didn't see anyone, or any other Titans. At least the rest of the Corps had all apparently made it inside the hidden passage safely. The trick now would be to keep Annie away from them, until they could reason with her. If she could be reasoned with. There was no telling how rational or irrational she might be, after the captivity the others had described.

A huge hand ripped him off the body of the Titan he'd felled, crushing him, pinning his jaw to his neck and his arms to his side, and Bertolt realized through a haze of pain that he should have known better than to take his eyes off the battle. Sparks flared in his eyes and the Aberrant's mouth opened in front of him. There was a wealth of pain, but no blood, and he couldn't even move his jaw to bite his cheek.

Then suddenly the mouth was gone and he was falling. He was caught before he hit the ground, by something hard and strangely wet. _Who…?_

Bertolt screamed, as fire ate him alive, writhing and lashing out wildly, irrationally, as he burned.

0 0 0

White Knight stared in helpless horror as Bertie fell from Ackerman Titan's hand, screaming and thrashing, and crashed down onto the ground directly in front of Ice Queen. Wild eyes staring from a ruined face, half melted jawbone revealing the roots of every tooth, Ice Queen snatched up Bertie, tore off his left arm and then smashed the bloody end of it into his face.

White hot fury tore through White Knight as the woman he had still loved killed the man who had been like a brother to him, as she destroyed Marcel's world right in front of his eyes. The need for revenge drove out every rational thought as he dove into her, intent on ripping her apart. But her crystal armor sheathed her, protecting her, and then hands were tearing at him, forcing him back away from her.

He grabbed the fucker by the throat, intent on ripping his head off, but froze when he recognized Yeager Titan's face. _Why the fuck is Eren defending her?_

And then he heard the enormous cracking boom and he and Yeager Titan were blasted across the plain, which was crackling with chartreuse lightning. He staggered to his feet, staring in disbelief and relief so strong, it crippled him, as Bertie turned into Colossus, curled in a fetal position on his side, crushing dozens of Titans with his shift.

He quickly scanned the plain for Quicksilver and Banshee, relieved to see they'd darted clear or been blown to safety. Ice Queen and Ackerman Titan hadn't been flattened either. And suddenly his fury at Ice Queen abated, as he realized she hadn't been attacking Bertie after all, that she'd been desperately trying to save him, to force the shift that would heal him from the acid that had been dissolving him. Belatedly his hatred towards Mikasa vanished as well, as he realized she'd been trying to save Bertie from the fall, either consciously or instinctively, and hadn't realized her touch would burn him, kill him.

Then he saw Ice Queen go down under a swarm of hungry Titans, and he ran to her, not to join them in killing her, but to save her. From the corner of his eye he saw Yeager Titan attacking the Titans that were trying to eat Colossus, and Quicksilver skating in rings around all four of them, downing Titan after Titan, as Banshee shredded foe after foe.

White Knight yanked the bleeding and dazed Ice Queen to her feet. She'd apparently either used up her crystal armor ability, or was too stunned to concentrate, to focus, blood steaming up from dozens of wounds, which began closing up, even as he watched. Her face was a lot slower to heal, which made him worry about Bertie all the more. Bertie had shifted, but he hadn't moved, though Colossus's skinless back looked the way it normally did.

_Christ, what if she was too late? What if he shifted and died?_

He felt teeth close around the back of his neck, fortunately unable to pierce his armored hide, and he realized he didn't have the luxury to stare at Colossus and worry. White Knight began systematically bashing the Titan's all around them, his movements echoed by Ice Queen, though her own attacks were far more precise and graceful than his would ever be. Which was fine by him. He'd always preferred boxing and street brawling to martial arts, and he was just grateful they weren't the ones she was attacking.

Thankfully, Ackerman Titan was attacking their enemies too, instead of any of them, Yeager Titan at her back. Even in Titan form, Eren was protective of her. Those two made a formidable pair. Meanwhile, Quicksilver fought with the beautiful speed and grace he'd missed seeing for years, while Banshee tore bloody chunks from their enemies, ripping and tearing everything around her like a wildcat.

There was an enormous gush of steam where Colossus had been. Then there was a smaller burst of steam as Quicksilver turned back into Marcel. White Knight saw Ice Queen stop mid-swing, staring in fascination at Marcel, as he ran into the still dense cloud of steam, obviously eager to protect Bertie, and probably as anxious as he was to ensure Bertie was still alive, that he was healing.

To White Knight's relief, he realized that most of the damage to Ice Queen's face was finally healing over. At least it was something their Titan healing power could overcome.

He took out the Titan that had been using Ice Queen's momentary distraction to attack. Love and loyalty aside, they couldn't afford to let Annie die, not after she'd ambushed them like this. They need to learn whether she was the one who had ambushed the Corps last mission, too, and if so, whether she was working alone or with the King or some other faction within the Walls, if perhaps those people had been the ones to spring her from the MP's prison.

He wondered whether she'd been released or escaped, and if the latter, how many men she'd killed, how much more blood was on their hands. It took being tackled by something that tried to eat his face to bring his head back into the game. Christ, he hated these fuckers. Over a hundred years of this shit, and he still felt like he'd been dropped down in the middle of one of those zombie movies he used to love.

The steam around Marcel and Bertie dissipated in a gust of wind, and his eyes widened in horror as he saw the Aberrant in mid-pounce above them, knowing that fast as he was, he'd never make it in time. But then Yeager Titan was there, yanking the Aberrant out of the air with one hand and tearing its head off with another, raining steaming gore down onto Bertie and Marcel.

Marcel was holding Bertie, who looked limp, dead, his clothes dissolved away except for a few ragged scraps of the front of his uniform, which Marcel tore off him. White Knight's heart raced, until he realized Marcel didn't look grief-stricken or hysterical, just intent, which meant Bertie must still be alive.

Thank God. One less sin for him to atone for. Not that he ever could or would want to ever be absolved. He deserved to burn in hell for all eternity, especially if he could strike some kind of bargain to ensure the rest of them didn't have to. He was fully prepared to threaten God or the angels into seeing things his way, when it came to the others.

He realized he'd gotten distracted again, and momentarily wondered why he hadn't been attacked yet, until he saw Ice Queen shift and realized there were no more Titans anywhere within sight. Yeager Titan was looking around, glaring, like he was pissed off there was no one to fight. Then his eyes focused on him and he roared a challenge.

Thankfully, Mikasa stepped between them, her hands out, as if to stop him, but fortunately not touching him, like she had finally realized her touch was deadly. White Knight took the opportunity to shift back himself. He needed to be able to speak for this next part.

"Eren, Mikasa! You need to shift back! I want you to both sit on the ground and relax. Pretend you're going to sleep. If you can't pull out of it yourself, I'll get you out," he assured them, using his best command voice, the kind that used to make the new recruits pee their pants, back when he was a special instructor all those years ago, before he convinced the brass that was a bad idea, no matter what his aptitude tests had said about his ability to teach.

Yeager Titan bristled, and he belatedly realized maybe that wasn't the best tone to take with him, but then Ackerman Titan sat down, gesturing Yeager Titan to join her.

With a final warning glare in his direction, Yeager Titan sat in front of her.

Reiner could see the two of them calming, their tense muscles relaxing. He was impressed when he saw a lump forming at the base of Yeager Titan's neck, and more so when Eren's head and shoulders emerged. Then Eren started struggling against the flesh still confining him.

"Hey, calm down, Eren! I'll cut you free if you can't pull out the rest of the way on your own," Reiner assured him as he hurried over to the kid.

Eren looked startled and frowned. "Reiner? What are…?" Then his eyes widened and he looked around, falling free of his Titan body as his eyes fell on Ackerman Titan. "Is that…?" he asked, his voice filled with wonder.

"Yeah. She's pretty hot, for a Titan, even hotter than…" He froze and then looked over at Annie. Thankfully she was hugging both Marcel and Bertie, crying her eyes out, her human face unmarred by Ackerman Titan's acid.

He turned back and tackled Eren just in time. "Shit, kid! That was close! You can't touch her. That slick stuff all over her is acid. She nearly killed Bertie with it, his shift was the only thing that saved him, and you won't be able to shift again right away, unless you're a lot stronger than we are," he warned, as he got off Eren and pulled him to his feet.

"Then how are we supposed to get her… Mikasa, don't! Stop!" Eren yelled, flinging himself over Reiner, pinning him to the ground

"What the fuck are you…?" Reiner started to ask and then froze when he realized he was covered in shadow from a formerly cloudless sky and saw the glaring form of Mikasa towering over him, murderous rage in her eyes.

"He wasn't trying to hurt me, he was protecting me! I know you don't want to hurt me, and he was afraid your acid would burn me. Reiner's our friend now, remember?" Eren urged.

"She probably doesn't like you being on top of me, either," Reiner said ruefully.

Eren's eyes widened and then he blushed as he realized what he meant, and he scrambled quickly to his feet. "Come on, Mikasa, you know I don't like him like that! Reiner's like a brother. I just didn't want you to hurt him, when he was protecting me. You need to lie down and go to sleep, OK? All the bad Titans are dead. There's just our friends now," Eren soothed.

Which was more than a little stretch, considering Annie was with them, but fortunately, because Eren was the one saying it, Mikasa listened. Her glare changed to a loving smile, as she reached for Eren, and then a frown as she drew her hand back, but of sadness, not anger. She'd definitely realized her touch was deadly. Then she lay down, facing them.

"That's it. Now just go to sleep, OK? And we'll get you out of there, if you can't do it on your own," Eren assured her.

Once he was sure the kid had her calmed down and knew better than to touch her, he headed over to Marcel and Bertie and Annie.

Marcel was apparently in the middle of the condensed version of his story. "… revived me. And then White Knight and Bertie came with Jean Kirstein, when they heard Banshee screaming, as she was battling the Titans that were attacking us. They helped defeat them. And we established a truce, a treaty, with the Corps.

"We sealed off the Inner and Outer Gates and cleared all the Titans out of Shiganshina, and then headed off after some of the Corps members who had gotten separated from the rest of us, two shifters, Mikasa Ackerman and Eren Yeager, Grisha's children, and a couple of other Corps members. Once we found them, we accompanied the Corps back most of the way to the Wall, so they could go home. We were just starting our journey back to Base Camp when you attacked them. We had to keep you from hurting them, and show you I was alive," Marcel concluded.

Reiner was glad he hadn't mentioned anything about the books and the radio, unless he'd done so earlier, but he doubted it. He didn't want Annie knowing about those yet. He still wasn't sure why she'd attacked, and who, if anyone, she was working with. Interestingly, Marcel also hadn't mentioned Hange was a shifter now too.

"All that time, you were in Shiganshina. We almost killed you, when we attacked. If that boulder had fallen a few feet over on Yeager's house…" Annie speculated in horror.

"There's no reason to fight them anymore, Major. Commander Erwin and the Corps aren't our enemies, and they're going to ensure no one else is. We need to know you won't attack them anymore, that you'll honor our truce with them," Marcel urged.

She shook her head. "There's no way they'll forgive us for Shiganshina, for Wall Maria, Trost, Wall Rose," Annie denied.

"They already have. Even Captain Levi isn't seeking revenge, for what you did to his Squad. They've acknowledged their part of the blame, humanity's, for what happened," Reiner argued. "And you're not the only one. I did some terrible things too, besides taking down the Walls."

Annie was looking completely stunned.

"How did you escape the prison? Did someone get you out? Or did they release you for some reason?" Reiner asked.

He felt a chill run down his spine, as he saw a look he'd seldom ever seen in Annie's eyes: fear.

She shook her head wordlessly.

Eren glared at her. "Seriously? After all this, you're still keeping secrets? You ambushed us, just the way the Corps was ambushed last mission. If you're working for the bastard who did that, we need to know," he demanded.

She frowned, looking from Eren to Mikasa. "Where's Armin?"

"As if you care about Armin! You tried to kill him, remember? And me and Mikasa too. And the entire remaining 104th, just now, including Krista. Marco. You murdered Marco, didn't you?" Eren accused angrily, not yelling, but demanding an answer.

Annie stiffened, the confusion vanishing, and she looked him unflinchingly in the eyes. "He would have died anyway, sooner or later. He wasn't strong enough to survive as a Scout." Her voice was cold, level, emotionless.

Reiner's heart clenched and his stomach churned. _Oh God. She said that as if killing Marco meant nothing. She really is gone. She actually murdered Marco._

Eren's eyes narrowed. "Wasn't **strong** enough? What the hell does strength have to do with surviving against the Titans? Armin, Sasha, Connie, they've all survived multiple battles, but Thomas and Franz died within the first few minutes of combat. What the hell is wrong with you? Marco was our friend, our comrade! How could you?"

"Friend? Comrade? He was an enemy. You were** all** our enemies. Marcel…" she trailed off, looking from Eren to Marcel, to Bertie, and then to him. "You understand, Reiner," she urged.

He shook his head. "Not them. Not him. We knew we'd lose some of them when we took down the Wall, that's war, but targeting them? Targeting Marco?"

"Why him? Why not the rest of us?" Mikasa pressed, her voice quiet, intense.

"Because he saw me! He was too damned nosy, too damned smart for his own good! 'What are you doing here? This isn't your position. Were you overrun? Where are Reiner and Bertolt and the others? Have you seen Jean? Is he alright?' He wouldn't let me leave, he wouldn't shut up, and those two damned MPs saw us talking, they started heading towards us.

"So I hit him. I had to! And then I silenced the two of them, too. I realized I could use Bott's gear to kill those lab specimens that geek bitch was torturing, so I took it. Then I dangled Bott's body right in front of one of those fuckers, so they'd eat him, get rid of the evidence for me. I didn't expect there to be anything left. He got his revenge in the end because they didn't do the job right, thanks to Armin and that damned harness."

She spoke without the smallest sign of grief, remorse or guilt. If anything, she was angry, bitter, resentful. Marco had just been an annoyance to her. Killing him was like swatting a fly. Reiner had hoped she'd recover, that after she saw Marcel, she'd be different, that it would matter, that she'd change back, but… The Annie he knew was gone. Or maybe she'd always been like this, and he'd just turned a blind eye, all these years.

"How did you get out here? Who told you where to find them? How did you know about their mission, that they'd be out here?" Reiner pressed.

There it was again, that look of fear. And suddenly, with sick certainty, he knew. "Fuck. Shit. He's still alive? He's here? The General? He was in one of the Sanctuaries, he was sent to investigate, when we went silent? Or he found you on his own? It's the King, isn't it? Or Commander Dok? He's gotten to one of them, hasn't he?" he demanded.

Bertie paled. "General Leonhart? Her father? He's alive, he's here?"

"Screw going back to Base Camp. We have to warn the Corps. Even after what little I told them, they have no idea who they're facing, what they're facing," Reiner said grimly.

All the blood drained from Annie's face, and she looked around wildly, not at them, but at the last traces of the Titan corpses steaming away, her decimated army, the one she'd helped them defeat. Then her eyes flew to the reopened Inner Gate and to the Wall, in the direction of Nu Gate. "I have to stop them!"

As if in answer to her demand, a muffled, echoing rumble rolled across the plain, and a plume of dust shot out of the Gate in the Wall the Corps had disappeared into.

"Christ, Annie! What did you do?" Reiner demanded, even as Eren and Mikasa began running for the Wall, screaming Armin's and Levi's names.


	51. Chapter 51 - Desperate Measures

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 51 – Desperate Measures

"What do you mean, cave it in?" Armin shrilled, staring at Levi, horrified, as the others started pulling the dynamite from their packs, for Hange, Kearney and O'Seanessey to prepare the charges. "What about Eren and Mikasa?"

"Calm down, brat. Hange's right, she's brilliant. We can't risk losing the radio and these books. Assuming the others don't kill Leonhart, we need to slow her down, keep her from sneaking up on us before we reach the boats. Setting the charges here, instead of near the entrance, will force her to go underground, which we've already seen she hates. At the very least, it means that she has to go back out, shift, and then dig bedrock with her bare hands till she gets to the blockage. So even if she's able to eventually dig the tunnel out again, by that time, we'll be on the canal.

"If we take all three boats with us, there's no way she can catch up to us on foot, and the ceiling's too low for her to shift and run. At best, she'll be able to crawl, like Yeager Titan did. So Hange's idea, of blowing up the tunnel behind us, makes perfect logistical sense," Levi reasoned, even as he fought the dread that was all but crushing him. He couldn't believe he was sanctioning a plan that would be trapping him underground.

"But that means Eren and Mikasa can't catch up to us either," Jean argued.

Levi sighed, the weight of that fact heavier than the thousands of tons of rock already pressing in on him from all sides. "I know. But they have Hoover, the two Brauns and Ymir to help protect them, and they're both shifters now. They'll survive," he claimed, with more confidence than he felt.

"Arlert, we can't allow these books and the radio to fall into Leonhart's hands, or for her to destroy them," Erwin reiterated in support, as he sealed and reslung his pack.

"Don't use everything, you've got, Hange. We need to save some out, in case there are cave-ins up ahead, or we need to blast our way out, if Sigma Gate has been destroyed," Levi cautioned, seeing the number of bundles she and the others were preparing.

"Remember, I'll be able to shift and dig like Yeager Titan did, if that happens, so either way, we won't be trapped," she assured him.

_Unless she's killed,_ Kenny's voice whispered in his head, as always, taking advantage of him when he was at his most vulnerable. His gaze flew anxiously to Anders and Bauer, who were guarding behind them, to ensure Leonhart didn't sneak up before the charges were ready.

"You need to save some anyway. The whole reason we brought the damned dynamite was to use on shifters, and it's the one thing that works against Leonhart. Now that she's here, I want a fuckton of it held in reserve. We could be battling the Female Titan here in the tunnel, on her hands and knees like Yeager Titan was, or when we get to the Underground, to Sina. We need to be prepared for every contingency, especially if she took out the MPs guarding her. That means they either didn't have enough dynamite to stop her, or they freaked and blew their shots. Or someone helped her escape, or let her go."

"Levi's right, Hange. Can you still do the job using less?" Erwin asked.

"Of course! This is me, remember? Even with the pack that unfortunately detonated on our way to Shiganshina, I brought, as Levi so eloquently put it, a fuckton of dynamite, and then some. What I've got here is only half our remaining supply. So shoo," Hange ordered, waving her hand for emphasis. "I want everyone else to double-time it towards the canal. I'll set the charges alone. If anything goes wrong, I'm most likely to survive it."

"Regenerative ability aside, don't ye go blowing yourself up now, lass. Ye promised me dinner in Sina," Kearney claimed, to Levi's surprise.

Hange smiled, not the usual manic way, but gentler, similar to the way she'd smiled at both him and Armin a few times.

It looked like the interest Levi had seen budding earlier was starting to take root. _Good._ Kearney was one of the few people good enough for Hange, and one of the few people he trusted with her. He was both a gentle man and a gentleman, and the very fact he didn't have hands to hit her or pin her with might mean they could even actually have a physical relationship too, assuming they decided to take it that far.

With one final look back the way they had come, towards freedom and daylight, and Eren and Mikasa, Levi reluctantly headed for the canal with the rest of them, leaving Hange with a torch and her charges. Levi was surprised that Lenz hadn't protested the plan vehemently as well. Apparently, she had faith that Ymir would survive, regardless of which side of the tunnel she was on.

It became harder to breathe with each step, the deeper in Levi went. The leg brace which had been aiding him run before seemed to weigh him down. His still tender lungs and bruised ribs reminded him how precious every breath was, and there didn't seem to be enough air. He was almost ready to turn around, to spring back, to try to stop Hange, when he heard the pounding footsteps echoing behind him and the echoing, gleeful cry, "Fire in the hole!"

The explosion, when it came, was terrifying. Levi could feel the ground shake, hear the rumble of tons of shattered, falling rock, and then the shockwave and dust cloud hit, which sent him into a coughing fit that brought him to his knees.

He started hyperventilating, desperate to drag in as much oxygen as he could, before it was gone, even though his rational mind knew he should still be able to breathe, that the tunnel was full of air, and more was being brought in through the grate the water escaped through, at the end of the tunnel.

_Unless Leonhart caved it in behind her. You're going to die, here, buried alive, and this time there's no one left to save you, to dig you out. You're taking your friends with you,_ Kenny taunted.

Levi wanted to scream at him to shut up, but he couldn't breathe at all; it was as if a Titan was squeezing him. His chest was on fire, he could feel himself shaking, even as his arms grew numb and dizziness flooded him. He heard voices, but couldn't understand the words through the blood rushing in his head; he felt arms cradling him and clung to them desperately instead of pulling away. Then there was a sharp pinch in his right arm that triggered him to fight, but too late, as the numbness spread, and darkness followed.

0 0 0

"How is he?" Erwin demanded, nursing his bashed arm as he watched Hange time Levi's pulse.

"Calm down, Commander. He's going to be fine. The sedative is taking affect, and his breathing is returning to normal," Hange assured Erwin. "His earlier pneumonia and the dust certainly didn't help, but my diagnosis was right, he was having a panic attack and was hyperventilating because of it. He's not in respiratory distress, now that he's unconscious.

"We'll need to carry him to the canal, and I recommend we keep him sedated this time while we travel. Knowing this end of the tunnel is sealed is going to make it that much harder on him, and between his lungs, ribs and leg, he's not at a hundred percent to begin with. The last thing he needs is two or three more days of stress, with any number of panic attacks."

"There might be traps or ambushes along our path this time. Can't you give him something to keep him conscious, but more calm?" Erwin asked.

"Nothing that wouldn't wreck his reflexes enough that he wouldn't be useless in a fight anyway, and psychologically, that could be catastrophic for him, even if he survived it," Hange apologized.

"Alright. Do what you think is best for him," Erwin agreed tersely, hating to see Levi like this, testing his arm and flexing and then clenching his fingers. Even out of his mind with terror and nearly unconscious, Levi fought like a demon.

"How's your arm? Broken, cracked or just bruised?" Hange asked.

"Bruised. Kirstein, Springer, O'Seanessey?" Erwin asked. The three of them had aided him in trying to pin Levi after he'd broken free of his calming hold, when Hange had injected him with the sedative.

"Just bruised," Jean reported, panting, his arm wrapped around his ribs, Armin fluttering anxiously beside him.

"Bruised, sair, though he nearly got me in the family jewels," O'Seanessey agreed, rubbing his thigh.

Erwin felt a vicious stab of satisfaction at that, and regret that Levi had missed, even though Levi had explained to him about the concealed knife in his leg brace while they were on the trail, claiming that was the reason Liam had fastened the brace for him, to show him the knife, without revealing it to the others. The fact that Levi still trusted Erwin enough to reveal it to him had helped put his earlier anger to rest.

"Springer?" Erwin asked warily. The scrappy but diminutive Scout had a hand wrapped around his jaw and was shifting it back and forth carefully, and there was blood on his lips.

Springer spit out a mouthful of blood. "He knocked a few loose again, but didn't knock any out this time. And don't worry about it, sir. I'm not holding it against him. I knew what I was risking when I kept him from braining Jean."

"Good," Erwin said, with a nod. The last thing he needed was a resumption of hostilities. "In that case, Blouse, Springer, you two take the lead. I want you scouting ahead of us. Be cautious of potential traps and ambushes, and be ready to alert us to what you find," he ordered.

"Yes sir!" they replied, and headed out, the rest of them getting back into formation behind them.

0 0 0

Jean scanned the Maintenance Dock cautiously, even though Connie and Sasha had assured them they'd checked under the overturned boats for traps, though they hadn't kicked them to rid them of insects yet, and they swore the Xi Gate was still sealed from the blast on their outward journey. Jean would have been more convinced, if Connie wasn't glaring at one of the boats, and rubbing his right hand, as if it had bitten him.

Jean was glad they'd left the boats upside down on the dock. Their hulls, the floor, everything was covered in bat dung. At least they wouldn't be sitting in it. He could see the finger marks from where Connie and Sasha had lifted the boats, and their uniforms were streaked here and there with it, though they apparently used the canal to wash their hands, instead of wiping them on their uniforms.

"If everything's fine, why do you look so freaked out?" Jean demanded.

"Why don't you lift that one and see for yourself?" Connie challenged with a glare, pointing at the middle boat, the one Jean had been in on the outbound trip.

Jean frowned, puzzled, as he kicked the boat a number of times, and he and Armin squashed the insects that ran out. He'd expected to find something really freaky had crawled into the cracks, maybe a giant centipede or something, but nothing unusual emerged.

When after a number of additional kicks, nothing more scuttled out, he flipped the boat over and froze, literally. A blast of arctic air enveloped him. "Marco," he and Armin breathed in simultaneous shock and relief.

Neither of them had felt Marco at all, since he'd left them abruptly down here. He hadn't followed them to Shiganshina, or to the cabin. _But why the hell is he… ? Hiding. Marco must have been too scared to go outside, where there were Titans. And then Annie might have come through this way. His murderer. He must have been terrified._

"It's OK, Marco. You're not alone anymore. We're here, and we've sealed the entrance. Annie can't get in, and she can't hurt you anymore anyway, you know that, right?" Jean assured Marco's spirit softly.

Sasha was looking from him to Armin in alarm and concern.

"Don't worry. Armin feels him too. He knows I'm not crazy," Jean assured her.

"You seriously believe that's Marco?" Connie asked incredulously.

"We don't care if you believe it or not. It's him," Armin said calmly. "You can ride with us, Marco. We're heading back to the Underground, and then Sina. You don't have to be alone in the dark anymore."

The bitter cold changed to the familiar warmth of Marco's presence, before the cold flared again.

"Something's wrong. What else is…? Oh. Don't worry. Mikasa and Eren are still OK. They're just going to be coming back separately. Well, with Ymir. And we even joined up with Krista, see?" Jean almost told him they'd made a truce with Bertolt and Reiner, but he didn't want to risk upsetting him.

"Kirstein, Arlert, Blouse, Springer, what's the hold up? Get that boat in the water and get board it," Erwin ordered.

Jean saw Connie's eyes widen as he realized the other two boats were in the water, Kearney, O'Seannessy, Anders and Bauer in the lead boat, and Erwin, Levi, Hange and Krista in the second, each of them holding onto the broken cable, waiting for them, before allowing the current to drag them off. Which meant Connie and Sasha would be in the boat with him and Armin, and Marco.

"Be ready to use the oars to pole off the side and keep the boat from spinning, but let the current do most of the work," Erwin advised.

"Yes sir!" Jean replied, as he lifted one side of the boat and Armin lifted the other, and then Connie and Sasha joined them in carrying it to the water.

0 0 0

As the boats pushed away from the dock and into the current, Hange hypothesized, "There are only our three boats, which means Leonhart didn't come by boat, even if she used the tunnel. Xi Gate is still blocked like we left it, so she didn't go overland and then through that Gate like Braun and Hoover. She must have gone overland the whole way and then either up and over Wall Maria, or through the broken Inner Gate."

Erwin nodded, looking distracted, like he was only half listening. That worried her. Erwin was never distracted or inattentive in the field.

"Levi's going to be fine. And Eren and Mikasa have the other shifters to protect them. Levi went along with the plan: it's not like you drugged him and then blew up the tunnel without his knowledge or consent. Even if they die, he won't blame you," she assured him.

Erwin grimaced. "No, he won't. He'll blame himself. But I actually wasn't worrying about Levi for once, or even Yeager and Ackerman. I was wondering how Leonhart got out of prison. Did she break free, or was she released? Either option is disturbing. If she broke free, how many people died, in the MPs, in the Garrison, in the City? Was she subtle or did she rampage? If she was released, then who authorized it, and why? Did they make some sort of deal with her, and send her out after us, for some unknown reason? Or has someone inside the Walls been working with her since Wall Maria fell?"

Hange frowned. "All the more reason to depose the King, because if it was someone in the government, it's likely he knew about it, even if he's not the one who ordered it. If it's someone in the military… maybe someone is after Dok's or Pixis's jobs? Promotion through attrition? It wouldn't be the first time."

"No. It wouldn't. Which is why that option worries me." He looked down at Levi and brushed the hair from his face, and stroked his cheek.

Hange frowned. "You don't think that's why that man, William Martin, tried to assassinate you, do you? That it wasn't just a personal vendetta, because his wife and daughter were killed, but that someone was using him to target you? No, that doesn't make any sense. It was pure chance you and the others rode past his house. But that doesn't mean there aren't others out there gunning for you, who just couldn't find you, because of this mission," Hange hypothesized.

"Your beside manner is flawless as always, Hange," Erwin criticized.

Hange shrugged. "You want nice, talk to Margaret, not me."

Erwin winced at the mention of the woman who was like a mother to Zacharius. "Mike. What if they target Mike? We left him at the base bedridden and helpless."

"With over 200 men to guard him. Men loyal to Pixis and Levi both. Don't let that healthy paranoia of yours get out of hand, Erwin. It will paralyze you," she scolded.

"Commander?" Lenz said timidly.

Hange was surprised. She'd forgotten she was in the boat with them, she'd been so quiet. It said a lot about how close Erwin felt to her, that he'd said so much within earshot of her. Hange only hoped that trust wasn't misplaced.

"Yes, Historia?" Erwin asked, a softness in his voice when he spoke her name that she'd only before ever heard when he said Levi's.

Lenz grimaced. "Could you still call me Lenz? It's not safe for people to know I'm a Reiss. It doesn't matter in here, but if you got into the habit…"

"Of course, Lenz. I'm just… I thought you were dead, or that even if you had survived, I'd never see you again. You were under my command for months and I never realized it."

"I didn't want you to, at first. I mean, I did, but… I'm so glad it wasn't you, that you didn't kill our family. When I think how Kenny Ackerman was just using me, the whole time… What does he want? Could he be the one pulling the strings?" Lenz asked.

"Ackerman's motivations have historically been unfathomable. He's definitely pulling some of the strings, but there must be someone else, someone power hungry and deadly. It's likely once we return, we'll find out exactly who that is," Erwin replied grimly.


	52. Chapter 52 - Torn Asunder

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 52 – Torn Asunder

Reiner took off after Eren and Mikasa, heading for the entrance to the apparently collapsed passageway, Marcel, Bertolt, Ymir and Annie at his heels.

"It wasn't me," Annie claimed, in response to his accusation, sounding genuinely surprised, as Marcel shot past him. The kid had been a track star long before he was a super-speeding Titan, and was still by far the fastest of them.

"So what, they just fucking blew themselves up?" Reiner snapped, as he pounded after Marcel.

"Hopefully, but I need to make sure they're dead," Annie replied bluntly.

Her words had him wheeling on her, his fist flying for her face without thinking. She dodged the blow, grabbed his wrist and tried to throw him, but he was ready for it. Unlike when they were fighting in front of the entire Corps during training, he wasn't trying to conceal his expertise now. And unlike the other times he'd sparred with Annie, when he'd held back to boost her self esteem, he wasn't constricted this time. He wasn't going to hold back and let her win. He was out for blood. She was talking about killing Armin and Connie and Krista. He was taking the psychotic bitch down.

When Bertolt faltered and Ymir stopped altogether, looking torn, anguished, between her loyalty to him and her love for Krista, he yelled, "Go, save them! I've got this!"

He saw from the corner of his eye that Bertolt reluctantly started running again, but Ymir took off at full speed, trusting he'd survive, and giving her tacit approval for what he had to do. Ymir had sparred with him before, when Annie wasn't watching, no holds barred. She knew what he was capable of.

Annie tried to sweep his legs out from under him, mistakenly believing he was distracted. But he was too damned good a soldier for that. He evaded her leg, and positioned himself, waiting for the fist strike he knew was coming, then he grabbed her right wrist and slammed up into her elbow with an open palm strike, shattering the joint with his right hand as he yanked with his left, tearing her right forearm off.

Annie staggered back, stunned, and he used that shock to press his attack, and target her left leg next. She couldn't protect selective portions of her anatomy with her crystal while in human form. The kid gloves were coming off, along with her limbs. Once she was only a head and torso, he'd interrogate her, and most likely kill her, before she could regenerate.

0 0 0

Eren's heart was pounding in cadence with his feet as he ran towards the entrance to the passageway, trailing after Mikasa, towards Armin, Levi, Sasha, Connie, Jean, everyone. He cursed as someone shot past him, thinking at first it was Annie, that she was coming to finish what she'd started, but then he realized it was Marcel. He only hoped he'd come to help. Eren was almost certain he must have: after all, he and the other shifters had stopped Annie from attacking the Corps.

Eren expected his lungs to be on fire, he'd never run this fast for this long before, but he felt fine – apparently that enhanced strength in human form that Hange had told him about. It was good to know there was another concrete benefit from turning into a monster. He watched as Marcel overtook Mikasa. _Shit, that guy's fast!_

First Marcel disappeared into the entrance, then Mikasa, and finally Eren was there too. He headed in, expecting it to be pitch black, but he saw a dim glow up ahead, like a tiny flame, and figured it must be Mikasa, using her Corps lighter. He'd lost his own when his legs were bitten off in Shiganshina; it was normally in the small leather pouch on the inside of his right boot. He continued running, towards the light, which was moving away from him.

He finally caught up, but only because there was nowhere left for Marcel and Mikasa to run. The passageway ended in a solid wall of shattered rock, like the cave-in from before, when Levi had accidentally blown up the tunnel, trying to kill the bats. Eren only hoped that his friends were still alive on the other side this time as well.

Marcel was looking intently at the walls and ceiling. "It looks stable. If we're lucky, it won't collapse further as we remove the blockage. There's no telling how far in it goes. There's only room for one of us shifted to work on this at a time. It's been long enough that I should be able to shift again; I've always had the fastest regenerative time of all of us. Besides, I should be the one to go first in any case. I'm a demolitions expert and I retain my intellect a lot better than the two of you, since you're still new at this."

Eren was surprised. Marcel actually seemed to be asking for their permission. He probably wanted to be sure they understood he was on their side.

"Alright. We'll stand back," Eren agreed.

"Wait!" Mikasa ordered, and he and Marcel looked at her in surprise. "I've been thinking. It may not have been Annie who blew this up. What if it was Hange, if Commander Erwin ordered her to cave in the tunnel behind them, so Annie couldn't get to them?"

"Are you nuts? There's no way Levi would have let him do that! Or Armin!" Eren argued.

"Think about it, Eren. When Annie uses her crystal armor, she's all but invincible. The radio and those books have to make it back. What if Erwin didn't think those dynamite arrows could stop her? What if he was buying time to get to the boats? Once they take them, even if Annie broke through, she'd have to follow on foot, or crawl in her Titan form. Even if she'd brought her own boat into the tunnel, there's no way Erwin would leave it behind for her to take. So if this is a delaying tactic, we shouldn't unblock the tunnel," Mikasa reasoned.

"But what if it wasn't? What if Levi saw bugs or bats and flipped out again? Or one of the torches fell and accidentally caught one of the packs on fire? Armin could be dying, they all could be!" Eren argued.

"I think your sister might be right, Eren. This rock fall is too uniform for that. I was thinking in terms of Annie booby trapping the passageway, but from what I've seen of your Commander, he well might take draconian steps like these," Marcel argued.

Eren was stunned. "You seriously think they would have left us behind, trapped us back here with Annie?"

"Erwin knew Reiner, Bertolt and Ymir wouldn't let her kill us," Mikasa argued.

"Neither would I. Regardless of your father's motives and actions, you're both still kids. There's no way any of us are going to let Annie kill kids right in front of us, without stopping her," Marcel stated earnestly.

Eren didn't argue the point, even though plenty of kids had died in Shiganshina. Eren tensed as he heard the intimidating sound of approaching running steps. "You don't know what Annie's like now. They'd have to kill her to stop her."

A look of doubt and then anxiety crossed Marcel's face, as they saw Ymir and Bertolt running towards them. "Reiner! Where's Reiner? Where's Annie?" Marcel demanded.

"Saying goodbye to an old friend," Ymir snapped, as she lit her Corps lighter and began methodically examining the fallen rock plugging the tunnel.

Marcel paled. "No!" He tried to run, but Bertolt tackled him.

"Don't try to stop him, Marcie. You know how she is when her father's involved, and ever since you disappeared, she just… she's not Annie, anymore. She really **has** become a monster. There's nothing else we can do."

"Wait, what? You mean… Reiner's out there fighting Annie **alone**? Are you nuts? She's way better than him! She'll kill him!" Eren yelled, turning back towards the exit. The way back should have been pitch black, but for some reason, it was shades of green, and he could easily see the walls, the floor.

Bertolt blocked him. "Eren, it's alright. Reiner's a better fighter than her. He's always been better. Only Marcel and Ymir can beat him, Marcel because of his speed, and Ymir because she fights so dirty and never attacks you the same way twice."

"And you think that mean he'll live? Damn it, Bertie! Even if you're ready to betray your commander, to write off a century of friendship and loyalty, don't you realize Reiner's going to be next! He's already walking a knife's edge! How could you let him…?" Marcel broke away from Bertolt, snatched the lighter out of Mikasa's hand and ran, back down the tunnel, towards the blackness they'd come from.

A lighter flared in Bertolt's hand, revealing the paleness of his face. "Oh God. I didn't even think about how…" And then he was running after Marcel.

Ymir cursed, at least, it sounded like cursing, but it wasn't in a language Eren knew, and then she was running too. Eren was torn between trying to rescue his friends on the other side of the cave-in, and his friends and fellow shifters on this side. He locked eyes with Mikasa.

"We have to," she said simply, and then she began to run, and he started running too. He only hoped Reiner was still alive.

A few hundred meters later, he only hoped the rest of them would be. The last thing he'd expected to see was the Armored Titan on a rampage. He was bashing and pounding on the ground, like he'd completely lost his mind. Marcel and Ymir both shifted and headed for him, but when Quicksilver tried to approach him to calm him, he roared, and to Eren's shock, attacked his cousin.

Fortunately, Quicksilver was far too slippery for him to catch, and far too fast for him to smash with his massive fists. Something sparkled in the sunlight, catching the sun's rays and making rainbows on the tall grass. Eren realized to his shock it was Annie, again trapped in a crystal cocoon.

With an infuriated roar, the Armored Titan attacked Banshee instead, and the two began a pitched, no holds barred battle.

"I'll shift and help calm down Reiner. You melt Annie out of there," Eren ordered Mikasa.

"No. Reiner's not going to calm down. I need to burn him out of his Titan body. You grab Annie, make sure she doesn't use the distraction to escape," Mikasa countered.

Eren frowned then nodded, looking her in the eyes. "I'm going to shift, grab Annie, keep her from escaping, but surrender her to one of you, if you want her, and then shift back," he announced aloud, methodically reciting the steps, to help enforce them, for when he was shifted.

"I'm going to burn Reiner out of his Armored Titan body, be careful not to hurt any other shifters in either Titan or human form, and then wait for your orders, in case you want me to melt Annie out of her crystal," Mikasa said, meeting his gaze.

They raised their hands and bit them.

0 0 0

Bertolt was completely panicked when Mikasa attacked White Knight, and he wasn't the only one. Quicksilver tried to tackle her. To Bertolt's surprise, she evaded the attack, though Quicksilver wouldn't have been able to hold her without burning her. To his amazement, she held out both hands in a "stop" gesture, and then pointed to White Knight and then put her hands together and mimed pulling away or opening. "Quicksilver, it's alright! It looks like she's trying to get Reiner out of his Titan body! Let her help him!" Bertolt yelled, staying as far away from the dangerous battle as he could and still be heard.

Fortunately, Quicksilver listened, and Banshee backed away as well.

The battle that followed was brief and brutal, the bellowing scream of agony from White Knight as he began dissolving triggering every instinct in Bertolt to aid his friend. He cursed when the cries of pain and distress overrode Quicksilver's usual phenomenal control, and he attacked Ackerman Titan, only to be successfully tackled by Banshee, who thankfully kept her reason, even as Yeager Titan roared in fury.

"Eren, don't lose control! Mikasa's fine, she's not hurt!" Bertolt yelled desperately and then felt his heart clench in fear as Yeager Titan's furious gaze fell on him. He couldn't afford to shift like the others, he knew it would kill him, that his brain would hemorrhage; the doctors and scientists had warned him a century ago of his limits.

Fortunately, Ackerman Titan realized the danger and clapped her hands loudly, drawing Yeager Titan's attention. His gaze became fixed on her, riveted, even as Ymir tore apart the smoking remains of White Knight, pulling Reiner free. His face and arms were red and burnt, not from the acid, but from the heat of his own Titan body, in a way Bertolt hadn't seen on him in decades, and he wasn't conscious. Thank God they'd gotten to him when they did.

Bertolt looked warily at Ackerman Titan, but she was motioning for Yeager Titan to put down Annie and sit down. To his surprise and respect for the relatively new pair of shifters, Eren followed her command. Then, as he watched, Yeager Titan's head slumped forward as he watched, and a bulge appeared at the back of his neck, and then Eren's head and arms emerged. He pulled himself out the rest of the way. Unlike Reiner, Eren was awake and aware.

"Holy shit. It looks like it worked!" He turned to Bertolt, who had approached closer, now that it looked safe to do so. "Mikasa's ready to melt Annie out if we want her to. I just have to tell her what to do next and she'll follow my orders," he explained.

Fortunately Marcel had regained control and he successfully emerged from his Titan form, but Ymir stayed in hers, likely in case Ackerman Titan lost control. She was by far the most dangerous of them.

"I think we should leave Annie in there," Bertolt said, shuddering in horror and dismay as he saw what was left of Annie in the crystal, like a fly whose wings had been torn off trapped in amber. Reiner had literally ripped her limb from limb: he'd torn her apart. No wonder he'd completely lost it when she covered what was left in a protective cocoon, her face a frozen mask of pain and terror. Reiner had loved Annie for decades, though she'd never reciprocated those feelings. Sadly, she was incapable of love. She didn't think she was worthy of it, and didn't know how to feel or express it, having been raised in a completely loveless environment. Even friendship was hard for her.

Bertolt winced as he saw Marcel was staring wide eyed at Reiner, like he was a monster. Reiner had been careful to keep his darker accomplishments from his younger cousin. There were things Reiner had confessed to after Marcel disappeared, the nights he drank too much, the nights the nightmares grabbed him by the balls and wouldn't let go; Marcel had no idea, the things Reiner had done during the War.

"Marcel? Do you want us to free her, so she can regenerate her limbs?" Eren asked.

Bertolt shook his head. "Marcel, we can't. You'd already run to the tunnel, you didn't hear, but when Reiner accused her of caving in the tunnel, she denied it – I think she was actually telling the truth, that she didn't do it – but when Reiner asked her whether she expected him to believe they blew themselves up, she said she hoped they had, but she needed to make sure they were all dead. If we let her out, she'll try to kill them. Tell Mikasa to shift back to human, Eren."

Eren looked from him to Marcel and then to Banshee. Banshee nodded her approval, and he let out a heavy breath. "Alright. Mikasa! It's time to shift back to human form, to come out of your Titan shell! We're going to leave Annie trapped. Come out, Mikasa!"

To Bertolt's relief, she obediently sat. A bulge formed at her neck, but that was as far as she got. Eren moved in to help her out, but Banshee scooped him up and set him aside, and then slashed her neck with a single quick swipe of her claws, which she rapidly rubbed against the tall grass, to rid her nails of the acid. Then, after a final scan for enemy Titans, Ymir shifted back to human form.

"There's no way we can fit in that part of the tunnel in Titan form. We'd have to dig through bedrock to dig out the cave in that way. We need to go back to Xi Gate, and dig through there. It will be a lot faster. I believe Annie. I don't think she caved it in. I think Erwin ordered Hange to do it, to buy them time to escape from Annie."

"So what, we're supposed to walk in human form, carrying Annie?" Eren demanded. "We're going to need to carry Reiner too."

"I know. But if we leave her, there's no telling when she'll emerge. We can't risk her getting free with no one there to stop her. Remember, we're all a lot stronger than we look," Ymir reminded him.

"Marcel and Bertie, you take Reiner. I've got Annie," Ymir claimed, although she likely could manage it.

The cocoon was a lot smaller this time, since Annie only had one shoulder and thigh left attached to her torso. Bertolt tried not to look too closely, and fought a wave of nausea when he did. For Reiner to have done that to her… He was terrified Reiner was on the brink of no return himself.

No. There was no way he'd allow that. Not after all Reiner had sacrificed, for him, for Marcel, for humanity, for the world. Reiner had been like a brother to him, he'd been the only thing keeping him alive and sane after Marcel disappeared. It was past time he paid that debt.

"Remember, once we're away from Shiganshina, there will be more Titans again. We've only cleared the ones in the immediate area. We all need to be ready to shift, to fight, to run, whatever it takes, but no one leaves Reiner or Annie behind. But after we dig you a way in, Eren, Mikasa and Ymir, Reiner, Marcel and I are going to stay out here in this compromised ring, with Annie. Remember, Marcel can't enter the City without starting an epidemic, and there's no way we're allowing Annie back there."

The others nodded tersely, though they had no idea of the true danger they'd be facing. It would be up to Ymir to enlighten them, after the rest of them were safely away. If General Leonhart really was here, she needed to warn Commander Erwin and the rest of the Corps about him.

The Corps had no idea who and what they were about to face. Leonhart had dubbed himself Caesar for his shifter codename, after the evolved chimpanzee in _Planet of the Apes_, who had been named after the Roman emperor, but the rest of them had simply called the viciously cruel, freakishly eloquent Titan what he truly was: The Beast.


	53. Chapter 53 -Unapologetic and Unforgiving

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
I'm back! Thanks for your patience. Here is the complete chapter, with a different title.**

Chapter 53 – Unapologetic and Unforgiving

Levi awoke slowly, sluggishly, fighting against either illness or drugs, or maybe both. He felt like the shit somebody forgot to warm over, as if people baked shit in their ovens, like it was bread. The thought had him struggling onto his side and heaving, or maybe it was an aftereffect of being either on his deathbed or drugged out of his mind.

"Damn it, Hange, do something!" Erwin demanded.

"There's not much I can do, other than hold his hair away from his face so he doesn't throw up on it. He's working the last of the sedative out of his system. I warned you on the way out that keeping him unconscious for days would have its drawbacks, but we didn't have any choice this time," Hange stated with infuriating calm.

"I hate you both," Levi rasped.

"Levi! Are you alright? No, I mean fully aware? Cognizant of who and where we are?" Erwin asked.

Levi shifted his gaze from the disgusting pool of vomit on the oddly curved wooden floor to… "Fuck!" he yelled, wrenching himself into a stiff, seated position. He glared at his lover and one of his supposed best friends. "I'm going to fucking kill you both." The threat made him feel more human.

"We'll be approaching Sigma Gate soon. We made good time – we calculate it's been between two and three days. We stopped dosing you a while after we passed Ro Gate, to make sure you'd be able to function before we got to Sigma, to the exit," Erwin assured him, but sounding more cajoling than smug, which meant the bastard was expecting to have the shit kicked out of him.

Levi planned to do just that, as soon as his head stopped spinning and he was back on solid ground. He was dizzy as fuck. "You got the dosage wrong, Shitty Glasses," Levi snapped.

"I gave you as little as I could and still have it be effective, the way you fight against drugs. It's not my fault that you're malnourished and injured," she argued, not sounding concerned, either because he'd used her nickname or because she honestly didn't give a shit, because she'd done what she thought was best for him.

"Yeah, well I wouldn't be malnourished if you hadn't drugged me unconscious so I couldn't eat," he bitched, knowing it was a lie. He could never have eaten down here, knowing he was trapped, that they'd blocked what might have been the only exit. He started to breathe more quickly just thinking about it, until he felt strong arms wrap around him, but from behind him, not in front. Not Erwin.

"Calm down you little idiot," Hange said into his ear. "There's plenty of air, and we're only a few hours away from Sigma at the most. There's no insects left in the passageway, the bat colony's eaten them all, and they're roosted partway down the other end of the canal, near Nu Gate, nowhere near here. We've got plenty of light, and you're surrounded by your friends and your men. You're safe, Levi, I promise."

It was astonishing how calming it was, hearing her voice, feeling her arms. For a moment he actually allowed himself to lean back into her embrace, breathing deeply, purposefully, until he pulled away.

"I'll pretend I didn't just hear you call me 'little'. Thanks, Zoe," he acknowledged. He looked past Lenz and then Hange, at the other two boats, and past them, towards Nu Gate, the way they'd come. "No sign of Eren, Mikasa and the others?" _Damn it._

"No. But there's no way they could catch us on foot. The only way they can possibly beat us to Sina would be if they got hold of some horses and rode them to death," Erwin assured him.

"There were plenty of horses left behind when Wall Maria fell," Levi reminded him.

"They'd have to catch them and Eren and Mikasa at least aren't used to riding bareback – they'd need to find tack for them," Erwin said.

"If they're still alive," Levi muttered.

"Levi, you know we didn't have a choice. I potentially sacrificed two men to save twelve, but more importantly, to save the books and the radio," Erwin said tiredly.

From his tone, Levi could tell it hadn't been as easy for Erwin to do as he'd made it sound.

"I'm sorry. I'm being an ass. You did the right thing, both sealing the tunnel, and drugging me. I could have gotten you all killed down here, like I nearly did on the way to Shiganshina," Levi admitted, as he flexed and stretched his arms, his fingers, testing his dexterity. His legs would be stiff, he was thirsty as fuck and he needed to piss.

"Stop the fucking boat so I can piss," Levi ordered.

He glared at Lenz as she smiled. "What the fuck are you smiling about?" he snapped.

"You sounded just like Ymir, sir, completely crass and unapologetic," she explained bluntly.

He looked at her speculatively. "You don't sound at all concerned about her. Aren't you worried she's dead?"

Lenz laughed in his face. "Ymir? Please! After a hundred years fighting Titans outside the Walls?"

"She was going to be fighting an army of them, led by the Female Titan," Levi pointed out.

"Ice Queen? First of all, Ymir would only fight Ice Queen if she forced the issue, she owes Annie Leonhart her life, and secondly, Ymir would win. I don't care what kind of crystal armor Ice Queen has. Ymir's smarter, faster and a better fighter. She'll kick her ass," she crowed.

"So the meek little good girl act was just that, an act?" Levi challenged.

"Damned straight. In real life, I don't take shit from anyone, just like you, sir," Lenz assured him.

"Yet you're calling me 'sir'," he goaded.

"Only because you've earned my respect," she countered.

"So, did that fucker who sent you after Erwin do some bullshit to earn your respect?" Levi challenged.

"Hell no. I called him 'sir' because Ymir did, and I've dealt with people like him all my life, cruel, strong men who think they have power over me," she replied simply.

"Don't kid yourself. You've never dealt with anyone like him. But you're still alive, so he didn't immediately see through your bullshit, which where he's concerned is the best anyone can do," Levi admitted begrudgingly.

"So what did that fucker say about me?" Levi prodded.

"He told us to feel free to kill Erwin, but that we weren't supposed to touch you, that… that you were his to punish," she said, after a brief hesitation.

"Tch. No surprise there. He always was a delusional bastard," Levi scoffed, but even as he said it, he consciously lowered his voice, and darted a glance up and down the tunnel. Because that fucker could be right there, listening, and then he'd be dead, or just wish he was. He more than half expected to hear his voice, to feel his hand, his feet, as he checked the walls and ceiling, to be sure, because he could be using his maneuver gear, hanging in wait like a spider from a web.

0 0 0

Armin felt like crying, like screaming, like punching someone, but instead, he sat impassively, the way he'd been doing for days, dutifully taking his turn at the oars to keep the boat headed straight down the canal, but not even trying to keep up a polite veneer of chatter with Jean and Connie and Sasha.

Jean shot him another worried glance. He'd been doing that a lot the past couple of days. Armin hadn't even bothered trying to reassure him that he was fine. He wasn't fine. Eren and Mikasa should have broken through the cave in by now, or come through one of the other Gates, if they were going to come at all. Which meant maybe they weren't coming, ever. They could both be long dead.

Armin should have stopped the Commander, Hange, all of them. He was never going to forgive any of them. He was never going to forgive himself, even if Eren and Mikasa lived. He'd betrayed them, his two closest friends in the world, his brother and sister in all but blood.

Blood. Titan blood. They were both Titans now, shifters. And he was… nothing. He'd always been nothing, held them back, messed them up, endangered them, as a bullied little kid in Shiganshina, as a starving refugee, giving them a third mouth to scavenge for, as the weakest of the cadets of the 104th, in Trost when he let Eren get eaten to save him, where he let a grieving Mikasa nearly lead them all to their deaths, when he didn't speak fast enough or eloquently enough to keep the military from firing their cannons at them, then later when he wasn't on base to keep Eren from transforming and rampaging, when he was too shy to stand proper watch and those robbers and rapists nearly killed them on the way to Sina, and in so many ways since.

"Armin? Are you OK?" Jean asked cautiously, stupidly.

Armin turned his head and looked wordlessly at him, watching dispassionately as Jean swallowed, as if he was afraid of him. He should care that Jean looked like he was afraid, it should matter whether he was afraid for him, or of him, but it didn't.

"Armin, stop freaking Jean out like that," Sasha scolded. "I know you're worried about Eren and Mikasa, so are we, but this isn't helping anything. We're getting pretty near Sigma Gate. You don't want to do anything divisive right now."

He hated that she was right, but also that she hadn't used that same persuasive logic to argue against blowing up the tunnel between them and Eren and Mikasa, against trapping them Outside.

0 0 0

Tensions continued to mount as they approached Sigma Gate. They half expected someone to be waiting inside the tunnel for them, to ambush them, either Annie or Kenny Ackerman, or some of the people angry with the Corps, or the MPs. But the door was sealed, looking exactly as they had left it.

Armin noted that, just like the last time, Levi was the first to leap onto the dock. "I'll take the lead when we exit. Just like last time I did this, if something's fucked up outside, I yell 'son of a bitch' and the rest of you come out fighting. But if it's really fucked, like the Female Titan, or something worse, I yell 'blow it', and you fucking do, you seal the damned entrance with dynamite and blow your way out through one of the other sealed Gates," Levi ordered.

"Levi, no," Erwin scolded.

"Yes. Because if it's her, that means she defeated Eren and Mikasa. At best it means she defeated Ymir, the two Brauns, and Hoover too. At worst, it means they joined forces against us again," Levi argued.

"I'm not disputing that. What I am refusing to allow is this idiocy of believing you are expendable. I told you before, damn it, you will never be in my acceptable losses column," Erwin argued.

"It's too bad Eren and Mikasa were," Armin snapped insubordinately, as he ignored both his superiors and strode up to the Gate, intent on pushing the damned owl. He didn't care about the radio or the journals anymore. He just wanted Eren and Mikasa back. He knew he'd probably blow himself up if he tried to blast one of the Gates open, so that meant he'd just have to go over Wall Rose. Or maybe Pixis would have a better plan. Maybe he'd even let him borrow some of his men.

Levi intercepted him, grabbing him by the arm. He tried to yank away and was infuriated that he couldn't. Even weakened like he was now, Levi was stronger than he'd ever be.

"Armin, stop. Hange has to set the charges around the door, in case this is a trap, in case there are enemies waiting for us outside. I know you think I'm being paranoid, and that you're afraid Eren and Mikasa are dead, but they're not dead. And the two Brauns and Hoover aren't going to turn against them, against us, whether Leonhart was their superior officer or not. As for Ymir, I've no idea. She's loyal to all of them, they're all like family, and she owes Leonhart her life," Levi stated grimly.

"She wouldn't," Krista stated confidently. "Ymir would never act against Marcel. She'll be on his side, and he'd never side with Annie. He was horrified by what the others did to Shiganshina, because of him. Devastated. He'll protect Eren and Mikasa from Annie, and Reiner and Bertolt will protect the three of them.

"Remember, they didn't even try to rescue Annie before. They didn't want to. They know she's insane. The Commander knew that too. That's why he was able to issue the order he did, to leave Eren and Mikasa behind. So please, Armin, listen to Levi. Don't do anything that could jeopardize the rest of us. Because if they don't come back on their own, we're the ones who are going to help you go rescue them. Because they're not just comrades, they're family. Right Eddie?" Krista asked boldly.

Armin was impressed that she'd use her family ties to Erwin against him, to manipulate him into agreeing. He half expected the Commander to chew her out for saying his name aloud again. Instead, Erwin looked at her with both the tenderness and pain previously reserved only for Levi. But he didn't say anything.

"Just in case it wasn't clear to you, Ymir's my Levi, Eddie, and I'll rescue her by myself if I have to. But it won't come to that, will it?" she pressed, when he stayed silent.

Erwin sighed. "I thought you'd have learned by now, Hista. Family betrays. Or at best, they die and leave you to face things on your own. Yeager and Ackerman disobeyed a direct order, so I felt no remorse in sacrificing them for the greater good. I would have done it anyway, but it would have weighed on my conscience.

"The future of humanity, or of our slice of it at least, rests with reestablishing our lost contact with the outside world, the other Sanctuaries, and of knowing what's been happening the past hundred years. We needed to preserve the books and radio for that. If she's gone, losing Ackerman is going to make it more difficult, but we have the Japanese books, and Levi and Hange have both proven adept in learning other languages," Erwin said bluntly.

"I hate you," Armin said just as coldly. After all they'd done for the Corps, Eren and Mikasa meant nothing to him. None of them did, except for Levi.

"I don't care. I'm not in this to be liked. Just don't betray me, because I _will _see you court-martialed and executed if it comes to that," Erwin said glacially. "Hange, set up the charges along the door. Hold back enough so we can blow our way out of one of the other Gates, if it becomes necessary."

"Aye aye, Captain Bligh," Hange said with a mock salute, her voice thick with disapproval.

0 0 0

Levi knew what Erwin was doing, pissing off Armin intentionally to keep him angry and functional, instead of paralyzed by his fears for his friends. He didn't approve, but he understood. He was pretty sure Hange did too, that the Bligh reference was more a warning that Erwin might be pushing Armin and Lenz too far, past desertion to outright mutiny.

As a devout student of military history, Erwin would get the reference, but likely none of the rest of the men would. Levi doubted any of them had ever even heard of the ocean, or would believe there was such a thing if they did, that ships could sail for weeks without even seeing the shore. But Levi knew about the ocean, the sea. His mother used to tell him stories about the Mediterranean Sea that embraced her Greek homeland, ones taught her by her father and grandfather.

He felt a pang of poignant longing and another of guilt. He'd deserted Erwin in the middle of the battle, run off after Armin instead of staying by Erwin's side. It wasn't mutiny, but it wasn't the loyalty the man deserved, either. The problem was, Armin deserved his loyalty as well. And then he'd betrayed Armin just as cruelly, by siding with Erwin and caving in the tunnel with Eren and Mikasa trapped in the Outside.

Levi was climbing out of his skin thinking about all the ways he'd failed his friends and comrades, the lives lost because of his mistakes, as Hange set the charges, until finally she was done. He pressed the belly of the owl that triggered the Gate mechanism and waited impatiently for the door to grind its way open.

He walked through the gateway, immediately tensing on the other side, not at what he saw, but at what he didn't see.

_Where the fuck is the guard? There should be someone from the Garrison here, or one of Hypatia's men. _

Even as he thought it, he was scanning for ambush, for signs of a trap. He'd feel it if something was wrong, he'd know there was an ambush ready to be sprung, he was certain of it, but he didn't drop his guard just because he didn't feel it. Instead, he shot out his grapples and swung onto the nearest rooftop, and began searching.


	54. Chapter 54 - Grim Discovery

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

****  
Chapter 54 – Grim Discovery

_Why hasn't Levi called out? Or told us to come out, if everything's OK. Why hasn't Levi said anything, or reappeared? Where is he? _The anger and resentment Armin had been feeling towards Levi for siding with the Commander and trapping Eren and Mikasa Outside shriveled up and died.

"Commander, something's wrong. Levi should have called out to us by now, or come back," Armin whispered anxiously, so his voice wouldn't carry out the gaping exit.

From the tension in Erwin's body, in spite of his impassive expression, he knew the Commander feared the same.

"Kirstein, Arlert, Blouse, Springer, see what's delaying him. Kirstein, you're in charge. If you're not back by the time I count to 100, we're setting off the charges and sealing this entrance and exiting elsewhere," Erwin commanded.

"Yes sir!" Jean replied for all of them.

"Permission to accompany them," Hange immediately requested.

"Denied. I won't risk you. I need your expertise for the radio, and those Japanese books. You four go, now," Erwin ordered.

Armin was relieved the Commander wasn't risking Hange and in the next moment hated himself for actually feeling grateful to him for keeping her safe, the bastard who had left his two best friends behind to die.

"Levi used stealth and that apparently didn't work, so we're going to run and use our gear," Jean instructed. "Sasha you and Connie go left, Armin and I will go right. Scan the surrounding buildings for signs of Levi or enemies, and rendezvous at the mouth of the alley on 50, count silently as you run. Go!" Jean ran out first, Armin at his heels, and Sasha and Connie behind them.

Armin half expected to see dead guards, Levi's body with them, but there was nothing, no trace of either guards or their missing Captain, as they searched. He couldn't lose anyone else, not after Eren and Mikasa, not Levi, not after treating him so coldly.

His last words had been spoken in anger, directed at both his superiors, but more at Erwin than Levi, because Erwin had reiterated that Levi wasn't expendable, that he'd never be an acceptable loss. _"It's too bad Eren and Mikasa were."_

Levi had stiffened when he said it, the vindictive words cutting a cruel, like a slap to his face. And he'd fought against Levi's restraining hand as Krista tried to reassure him they'd go back and rescue Eren and Mikasa and Ymir, as she tried to convince Erwin to, and he coldly replied, _"Yeager and Ackerman disobeyed a direct order, so I felt no remorse in sacrificing them for the greater good. I would have done it anyway, but it would have weighed on my conscience." _

_How could he say that, after they disobeyed orders to protect us?_

His anxiety increasing exponentially as he neared the mouth of the alley without seeing a trace of Levi, focusing on Jean's broad back to keep from panicking, realizing he'd forgotten to count, but that at least half their 100 seconds must already be gone, as he saw Sasha and Connie run up too.

"_I hate you." _The words echoed in his ears, the last words Levi heard him say.

_I don't hate you. I meant Erwin. I blame you, but I'm just as guilty, for being too weak to stop you. Please be OK._

And then suddenly Levi was there, miraculously appearing in front of them as if falling from the sky, and Armin belatedly realized he had, that he'd swung down on his maneuver gear.

"Son of a bitch!" Jean yelped.

Armin realized when he heard the thunder of footsteps behind them that the others had interpreted Jean's cry as Levi's signal phrase to come out fighting. He was only glad that hadn't been the signal for them to blow the tunnel, because that would have been a disaster.

Levi glared accusingly at Jean. "You're lucky there's nothing dangerous out here, brat. You could have just gotten everyone killed," he scolded.

"What do you mean nothing dangerous? Where the hell were you, if there's nothing dangerous?"Jean demanded. "Sir," he added, obviously belatedly remembering Levi was his superior officer.

"I mean just that. No enemy, but also, no Garrison soldiers and no one from the Library on guard, as they should have been, just Lurkers, but a lot fewer of them than I'd expect to see, especially as I didn't let them see me. I have no idea why. I say we take a side trip to the Library and find out what the fuck's going on. I would have gone on my own, but I didn't want to risk worrying Erwin," Levi admitted. Then he grimaced. "Although I guess I was a few minutes too late for that," he added ruefully as Erwin ran up and looked accusingly at him.

"Report, Captain," Erwin demanded.

"No signs of enemy, but no sign of Library or Garrison guards at the Gate, either, so I investigated a few blocks deep in every direction, to make sure we weren't being set up for an ambush, because I'm fucking sick of being ambushed. But there's nothing. I suggest we detour to the Library on the way back to the Garrison base for our horses, and a wagon for that crate, and find out what the fuck's going on," Levi proposed.

"You and Arlert go to the Library. The rest of us will go to ground in the building on your right. Report back as soon as you can, but I know politics and curiosity on the part of the Librarian might delay you. Just try not to take too long. I won't feel secure until we're back on the Garrison base, or our own," Erwin said.

"You heard the man. Arlert, you're with me," Levi ordered.

Unlike earlier, they weren't cloaked and concealed this time, to hide their uniforms, not because they wanted to be prominent, but because they'd left those cloaks behind with the Gate guards, to lighten their load for the trip to Shiganshina. Armin felt as if there was a target painted on his back because of it. They might as well be screaming "Soldiers, come kill us," to the Lurkers. Only as he and Levi got further from the others, he realized Levi was right. So far they'd only seen two people, and the moment they'd seen them, they'd run.

Armin swallowed. He suddenly felt like one of the bugs in the tunnel full of bats. "Levi? Do you think something big happened, something bad? I don't see any signs of battle damage, but could the Garrison have rounded up the Lurkers for some reason?"

"Fuck. I was just thinking the same thing, and hoping I was being paranoid. If there was something like that, Hypatia and the others will know," Levi assured him.

They continued on silently, scanning everywhere for danger as they crept closer to the Library. They rounded the final corner and Armin stared in shock and disbelief. "It's gone," he whispered, stunned, staring at the pile of rubble that marked the spot that had once been the Library. He lurched forward, but Levi grabbed him, yanking him back to the cover of the nearest building.

Belatedly Armin realized that whoever or whatever had destroyed the Library could still be there. _Was it a Titan shifter? Annie, before going to Shiganshina? Or one of the others? Would Reiner or Bertolt have done something like this? Or was it the MPs, using cannon or gunpowder or… oh God. Dynamite. Did they use dynamite?_

While Armin was frozen, Levi was scanning for signs of the enemy. "Stay here," he ordered and then he slipped away. Armin knew he was searching the immediate area for danger, but he didn't see him once as he waited, trying to come to terms with what had happened.

"_Is Hypatia dead? Are her men? Were the books buried along with them? Maybe it wasn't a shifter, or the MPs. It could have been Lurkers, criminals, or enemies, someone not as afraid and respectful of the Librarian and her men as Levi was, when he lived down here, when it was Theon, before Hypatia, before Levi knew they were his cousins._

Armin heard the sing of maneuver gear cables, and suddenly Levi was in front of the mound of shattered stone, waving him in. As Armin approached, Levi began surveying the devastation, no longer searching for enemies who appeared to have long since vanished.

Levi began cursing as he examined the ruins. "Shit. Fuck. There's blast marks, the wrong pattern for gunpowder. Dynamite. Whoever it was, those bastards used dynamite. Which means it was either the Garrison or the fucking MPs, and considering who she is, I can bet which. Bastards! If she's dead, I swear I'll kill every last one of those sons of bitches. I'll finish the job that murdering bastard started."

Armin was horrified to hear Levi say he'd take off where Kenny had stopped, that he'd hunt down the entire rest of the Military Police in vengeance for Hypatia, but then an even darker through struck. "Oh no. If they did this, does this mean they realize who she's related to?" Armin didn't want to risk saying Pixis's name, because there might be spies even Levi hadn't spotted.

It wouldn't have been easy to take the Librarian and her men by surprise. Something like this couldn't have been arrows with a few sticks of dynamite, an attack from a distance. It would have to have been bundles or packs of dynamite. Armin wished he knew how much Hange had given them.

"Fuck! You're right. If they figured it out, the Old Man might already be arrested or dead," Levi said, pain clear in his voice. "Come on. We're going back. We have to report this immediately."

Armin's heart ached for Hypatia, who had been his childhood friend and first love, and for Pixis, who was almost like a second grandfather to him, but he knew it was exponentially worse for Levi. Those two were Levi's cousins, his only family, his only surviving relatives. Levi had only just found them, and now he might have lost them both, after losing Eren and Mikasa.

"I won't die," Armin assured Levi stupidly, but meaning every word. "Neither will Erwin, or Hange. Or Sasha or Jean. Even if you've lost your cousins, and… and Eren and Mikasa, you won't lose anyone else."

"Tch. Stupid brat. Don't give up on Eren and Mikasa so easily. But the only other one of us who's immortal now is Hange, and she can still be killed," Levi muttered, almost contradicting himself, as they headed back on foot, side by side, not wanting to risk maneuver gear closer to the others, after what they'd seen, for fear of leading the enemy to their comrades.

Erwin emerged from the building the moment they were visible. "Report," he snapped, as he assessed Levi's face, obviously surprised to see them back so soon and trying and apparently failing to read what he saw there.

"The Library's been destroyed. Dynamite. Long enough ago that all the dust and smoke has settled. Which explains something else we noticed. There are far fewer Lurkers around than there should be, and the two that saw us immediately fled, I'm assuming because of our uniforms, which means it was a military action, even if that wasn't already obvious from the fact it was dynamite, and we're the only ones who have it. Which also means Pixis might no longer be leading the Garrison, if someone made the connection between him and the Library. That would explain the absence of Garrison guards here. We may have to write off our horses, since they're on their base, and find some other way back to our own base. Though if anyone figures out we knew about the Library too, there might be warrants out for us as well."

Armin's heart rate skyrocketed. He hadn't even though about potential dangers to them; he had been solely focused on Hypatia and her men, and Pixis.

"We're gone for a week, Annie Leonhart escapes, comes after us apparently using the Gate that should have been guarded, but the Garrison isn't here and the Library is destroyed. I don't believe in coincidences. Someone high-placed is acting against us," Erwin hypothesized.

"Not necessarily," Hange stated. "Think about it: they weren't waiting outside the Gate to ambush us. Which might mean they thought we wouldn't survive Leonhart's attack, but might also mean that Pixis pulled away his men before Leonhart was released, that whoever destroyed the Library didn't know where we'd gone. They might even have gone there looking for us. After all, the Gate entrance could have been sealed instead, as well as soldiers waiting to see what we came back with, if they realized where we'd gone, if they knew about the tunnel. So maybe Leonhart tracked us some other way, by scent or something, since she wasn't working with Braun and Hoover at the time and didn't have access to the stolen diagram of the aqueduct system."

"Regardless, this is going to make things exponentially more difficult," Levi stated. "If the Garrison has been compromised, if we're suspected of some sort of treason, either because of not reporting the Library, or the secrecy of our mission… It wasn't exactly authorized by Zackley. Which means all of us could potentially be facing AWOL charges at a minimum, if they decide to put that kind of spin on it. But we won't learn anything hiding down here. The connections I once had dried up long ago."

"Sir? I have some active connections down here and also in the Garrison and MPs. I might be able to find out the extent of what's happened," Anders offered unexpectedly. "After my family was killed, I entered military training in lieu of hard labor, and there's a longstanding tradition of Freetraders in the military, sir. It's a lucrative market. Some of the men I trained with as well as the older cadets above us have risen to rather high positions in the Garrison and MPs, as well as the Corps. If you'll allow it, I'll try to make contact with the men and women down here first."

"It's too risky to go alone. I'll go with you. Not visibly, but in the shadows, to watch your back," Levi insisted.

"We'll need to ditch our maneuver gear and jackets. The shirts and pants can pass for scavenged, they're dirty and torn enough, but Corps jackets are too unusual and distinctive inside the Walls," Anders suggested, not arguing Levi accompanying him.

Levi nodded. "I'll bring my cane, and I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve and other places," he said, glancing at O'Seanessey. "Sasha, Connie, let me borrow your combat knives. They're not as subtle as what I usually carry, but they'll gut someone just as nicely, if it comes to that."

"Of course," Sasha said, unbuckling her sheathed knife and handing it to him without question.

"I expect to get it back, so you'd better not die," Connie grumbled, as he handed it to him, gruffly betraying his concern.

"Likewise, brats," Levi replied.

"Don't take any unnecessary chances," Erwin ordered.

Levi snorted.

"Ones that I would view as unnecessary," Erwin qualified.

"I'll be as careful as you are," Levi challenged.

Erwin nodded.

Levi turned to Anders, who was just finishing strapping on Bauer's knife.

Armin suspected that Anders likely had at least a couple of hidden knives, in addition to his own combat knife and Bauer's. The man had shown them he was a skilled knife fighter when they'd sparred back on base, what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Alright, Anders. You lead," Levi instructed.

"Thank you, sir. But for down here, it should be Josef. Do you have a name I can call you, if there's a need? Levi is too well known, both above and below," Anders pointed out.

"Call me Liam. I'm carrying the family crest, after all, and it's familiar enough I'll answer to it without hesitating. And I'm sure you know, hesitating down here can get you killed," Levi pointed out.

"Then let's get going, Liam," Anders agreed, leaving off the sir this time, immediately falling into character.

Armin and the others watched as the two men headed out, until they turned a corner and were no longer visible. The real Liam looked particularly bereft as he watched Levi go and Armin realized he was taking the loss of the Library and Hypatia especially hard.

"Now we wait. I want the guards I have stationed informed of the new plan, and spelled at as close to two hour intervals as we can judge, without the sun to guide us. I don't want anyone getting complacent down here," Erwin ordered.

"Yes sir," the rest of them agreed.


	55. Chapter 55 - Pieces of the Puzzle

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

****  
Chapter 55 – Pieces of the Puzzle

Levi was impressed by Anders' ability to stick to the shadows of the buildings, flitting in and out like a wraith. Of course, with their white pants and shirts it would have been pointless, if not impossible, but their clothes were more grey than white now, in spite of the bleach some of them had been washed in days ago, between sweat, the pulverized rock of the intentional cave-in, and the guano and filth of the tunnel. Levi fought a shudder just thinking about the damned tunnel, the blocked exit.

He cursed as he realized he'd gotten distracted, that he'd actually managed to lose track of Anders, and hoped it wasn't because he'd managed to get himself grabbed. He increased his pace, scanning the street and darkened buildings for him, the poor lighting making it difficult. It was a miracle there was any light, really, in the Underground, but even here men couldn't live completely in the dark, like moles, like rats.

_Rats. Shit, fuck. _Just the thought of them was bringing back memories of the bites, the basement, the dark, alone, trapped.

A second later Levi lowered the knife that had nearly slit Anders' throat, that would have, if Anders hadn't blocked the blow with his own knife and seized his wrist. If Levi had been wearing his usual concealed blades, that last move would have gotten Anders a knife in the gut, but he hadn't been, and he'd recognized the man finally too. _If Anders wasn't a damned good knife fighter, he'd be dead,_ Levi realized in horror. _He would have been anyway, but it would have been his own fucking fault for grabbing my arm in the first place,_ Levi justified. And the fact that Anders wasn't letting go was suspicious as hell.

"Are you alright, Captain?" Anders asked.

"It's Liam, Josef, and let go now, or I'll break it," Levi reprimanded.

"You didn't respond when I called you Liam and you looked… distracted. I thought you might need my help, like in the canal, or the tunnel," Anders said cautiously, even as he released his hold.

"Shit. Fuck." Levi knew he'd lost track of his surroundings, that he was starting to lose it, but he didn't realize he'd been that fucked up already, like Armin, when they'd been sparring and he'd tried to kill him. "It won't happen again. I could have gotten you killed, even without attacking you myself," Levi admitted, completely disgusted with himself.

"You just need to be back in the sun, sir, the fresh air," Anders assured him, the calmness of his tone infuriating Levi.

"Don't patronize me, you prick! I need to know what the fuck's going on. I need to know if my cousins are still alive," Levi snapped.

"Maybe you'd better wait with the others, sir. I'll be fine on my own," Anders suggested, not in the cautious tone someone who didn't know better would use, which would clearly label him as too unstable to deal with, but in a matter-of-fact tone, phrasing it more like a reassurance, a helpful suggestion.

Levi felt his face flush in humiliation he hadn't felt since the time both Furlan and Isabel chewed him out for almost getting the three of them killed, the newbie mistake he'd made, only weeks before Erwin had come and recruited them. And only a little while later, he actually **had** gotten them killed. His only friends. His family.

"That's it. If you can hear me, sir, I'm taking you back," Anders said, fortunately concern in his voice rather than censure, or worse, pity.

"No. I'm alright now. I won't lose sight of you again. That's what triggered it, that damned panic attack, the memories of my fuck ups, all of it. I lived down here for years, Josef. I won't screw up again. I won't get you killed," Levi promised.

"If you're sure, Liam, then I trust you. We'll continue," Anders conceded.

It was ridiculous how relieved Levi felt, how ashamed he would have been to be brought back to the others like a lost toddler. But he didn't fully redeem himself until what must have been twenty minutes later, when the gang tried to jump Anders.

Anders saw the ambush closing in on him and had reacted perfectly, but he still would have been dead, one man against six, if Levi hadn't been there. Two against six was more than even odds, especially when Levi took half of them out before they even realized there was more than one potential victim. Anders got two of the remaining three, his blows also incapacitating, rather than maiming, crippling or killing.

Levi had the sixth man in a headlock, his knife pressed to the guy's cheek to ensure his cooperation. "Tell us what you know about the building that blew up, and I might let you live," he demanded in the deadly voice he'd honed years ago.

"What building? I don't know nothing," the man lied, not at all convincingly.

"Josef, remember how I promised I'd show you how to unhinge a man's jaw with a knife, exactly where to press to cut his face in two? I guess I'm going to get to give you that demonstration on a live victim, instead of a corpse," Levi threatened as he pushed the tip of his blade into the man's jaw.

Levi would have known the threat worked even the man hadn't started immediately spilling his guts, from the way he began shaking wildly and the sudden smell of urine permeating the already foul air.

"Don't! I'll tell you! I was there, hiding in the attic two buildings away. I saw everything. It was the Library that got destroyed, the Garrison that done it! There was dozens of soldiers, they circled the building three blocks away in every direction, and then they sent in a couple of men. They tried to trick them into opening the door, but they was too smart for 'em. The Librarian's men fired right through the door, killing both of those bastards. But after that, all hell broke loose. There was gunfire, lots of it, and a battering ram, there was more fighting inside the building, and explosions, like they brung cannons or gunpowder in with 'em, though I didn't see no cannons or powder kegs.

"The Librarian was still alive when they drug her out, her and a few of her men, but I know there should have been lots more guys than that. The books, they carried out the books, too, and then... I don't know how the hell they did it, I swear they wasn't carrying much of anything, they should have needed barrels of gunpowder to do what they did. But somehow they took down the whole damned building, all at once.

"It was like when I was a kid, the time I snuck up the stairs, and made it outside. I'd heard for years about the sun, how bright it would be, but instead, it was even darker than down here, and water was actually falling from the sky, and then there were these bright flashes of light, and a large cracking explosion of sound like the world was ending. I thought it was a Titan, I ran back down the stairs so fast I fell, I broke my leg, but I was lucky to be alive. That was the sound I heard when they blew up the Library.

"That's why we tried to jump your friend, because he was wearing a damned uniform, and we thought he was another one of those bastards, that he'd be blowing up something else next. If they could get the Librarian, they can get anybody. Nobody's safe," the man claimed in despair.

"Tch. Idiot. When has anyone ever been safe in the Underground? It doesn't matter how big and tough and mean your gang is, there's always someone stronger. We didn't kill your friends, not because we're weak, but because we're strong enough we didn't have to. Only the strongest men can afford to leave live enemies. Of course, only an idiot would attack a man who's already defeated him once," Levi advised.

"If you give a shit about these assholes, you'll keep them alive until they wake up. If you don't, and kill and rob them, you'll be dead within a day. I don't give a fuck either way. But if you try to attack us again, you'll be dead long before the day's done."

"I won't try nothing, I swear," the man assured him.

Levi let him go, ready to knock him out if he tried anything, but the man was thoroughly cowed.

After they were out of earshot, Levi fumed to Anders. "The Garrison. If the fucking Garrison attacked the Library, that means Pixis is no longer in charge. But it could have been the MPs, wearing their jackets, making it look like them, to try to trick Hypatia into opening the door and in case the others were spotted."

"Do we still go to my contacts? Or do we go back?" Anders posed.

"You said you have contacts in the Garrison and the MPs too. Those are the ones we need now. At least we know Hypatia and some of her men survived. If we're lucky, they won't have executed them yet. We need to find out." The thought of those bastards burning Hypatia on a pyre made of the books she treasured made him want to kill somebody. And he was worried about the Old Man, too. Was he alive or dead? At the very least, he was likely imprisoned, awaiting execution.

"Thanks for having my back. I couldn't have gotten them all myself," Anders admitted.

"You did a damned good job. From what I saw, you would have likely taken out at least four of them, before they got you, and the other two might have run, especially if one of them was that asshole who peed himself. He's just lucky he didn't get any of it on me, but the stench alone pisses me off," Levi grumbled.

"I know how, by the way. To take a man's jaw off with a knife," Anders commented grimly. "Thanks for not demonstrating it for me. It's not something I want to see again. It's bad enough I still see it in my nightmares."

"Someone you knew?" Levi hazarded.

The silence was answer enough. Then Anders exhaled heavily. "That's how the MPs killed my cousin, right in front of me, after that rival family sold us out and we were raided. Wilhelm was only 14, only two years older than me."

"Shit. Fuck. Those dirty bastards," Levi swore.

"Most of them. But Jeff Donner was there too, the man I told you about earlier, the MP who saved my life, kept me safe from the others, made sure I got into military training instead of a manual labor sentence. Until the other MPs betrayed him and got him killed too," Anders said softly.

"I forget sometimes, that I'm not the only one who's lost my entire family, my friends, my home, my life. Here I was sucked into the damned past so deep I nearly killed you, and your life was just as fucked up as mine," Levi said in self-disgust.

Anders shrugged. "Thousands lost their families. I just lost mine sooner than most, and not to the Titans."

Levi nodded. And now he might have already lost Hypatia and Pixis too, the last ties to his mother. _Damn it!_

"Do we head back to the Commander and tell him what we know, or directly to my other contacts Topside?" Anders asked.

"To Erwin. He needs to know if they see Garrison soldiers down here, they're likely the enemy now," Levi replied.

"Right," Anders responded.

They headed back to Erwin and the others in silence. The sentries Erwin had on lookout duty actually managed to spot them, though they tried to sneak up on their position, to test them. Connie was actually the one to catch them, the only one Levi didn't spot, which made him rise yet another notch in Levi's already impressed estimation of the little shit.

Levi reported what they'd heard, and Anders' offer to go Topside to his Garrison and MP contacts. In spite of the man's rocky past with the MPs, Anders suggested they be the ones he contact, since a drastic change had obviously happened in the command structure of the Garrison, for the Library to have been attacked, especially without enough warning for Hypatia and her men to escape ahead of time, with the books, and Anders wasn't certain how that might have affected his contacts. They weren't necessarily trustworthy at the best of times, and they might sooner kill him or sell him out than risk endangering themselves.

"Anders, you can go, but you're staying here Levi. I'm not letting you anywhere near the MPs. Dok hates you, and too many of his men know you on sight," Erwin stated emphatically.

"I'll go with Anders, sir," Armin volunteered. "They'll underestimate me. They won't see me as a threat, like they would Jean or Bauer or most of the others."

Levi wanted to tell him no, but Erwin was right, and so was the brat. Besides, this was the first sign Armin had given that he was still loyal to Erwin.

"Then you'll need these. You can't bring your swords, but I'm not letting you leave with just a single knife. You can give them back to Sasha and Connie when you get back," Levi said.

Armin had killed two men with his own combat knife, when he'd been ambushed in the woods, on his way to Sina with Eren and Mikasa, and he'd come too damned close to slitting Levi's throat, too, when he'd had that flashback to that attack during weapons practice, when Levi had been trying to assess the skills of his new squad. He knew how to use them effectively.

Levi looked at Liam and then back at Armin. "Here. Take this too. Try to conceal the hilt with your hand as well as you can," Levi instructed, handing Armin the sword cane Liam had made for his sister, the one Erwin had given him. He'd shown it to Armin weeks earlier, he knew about the hidden Survey Corps sword the cane concealed. "Just don't let the MPs confiscate it."

"I won't," Armin promised.

"And in addition to finding out about the change in command of the Garrison, about whether Hypatia and the Old Man are still alive… Try to find out if there's any word about Eren and Mikasa and Ymir," Levi risked suggesting. "They could have returned through one of the Outer Gates, one of the border towns. Just be subtle about it. The fewer people who figure out where we were the better, especially the MPs."

A look of fury and frustration flashed in Armin's eyes and then was gone. Armin nodded wordlessly, as he took the knives from Levi. It was blatantly clear that Armin hadn't forgiven him for siding with Erwin about sealing the tunnel, when Eren and Mikasa and the other shifters were still in the Outside. He likely never would, even if Eren and Mikasa survived.

Those damned books and radio had better be worth the cost, because he'd already lost too damned much because of them. But the shifters had regained someone they'd thought lost, a single life that might save the lives of everyone inside the Walls – assuming Marcel and the other shifters were even still alive, that Leonhart hadn't killed them all. That was the main reason he'd given Armin the sword, not that it could get past that bitch's crystal armor, if she appeared within the Walls again.

"And find out who the fuck let that bitch Leonhart out, or whether she escaped on her own, and who died when she did," Levi added. If they were lucky, maybe she took Dok and that bastard Kenny down. Of course, he'd never been that lucky, and doubted his luck would be changing, ever.

"Yes sir," Armin replied, as if they were strangers, merely subordinate and commanding officer. It was all he deserved, but it still didn't make it any easier to bear.

Letting Armin leave with Anders was one of the hardest things Levi had ever done. It felt like when he left Furlan and Isabel, just before they were killed. Levi knew if Armin and Anders didn't come back, their ghosts would haunt him for the rest of his life. Possibly even literally, though thankfully Furlan and Petra had each apparently moved on, once they realized they were hurting him worse by staying.

Of course, it was just as likely he'd been losing his fucking mind, although he was pretty sure someone was haunting Armin and Jean, too, though Armin had denied it when he'd asked him. Although it wasn't as if he would have admitted the presences he'd sensed either, after his friends and then his Squad were killed, even if someone he trusted had asked him. And he needed to stop thinking about that down here, because Erwin deserved better of him, and he'd already been screwing up and acting nuts enough on this mission.

0 0 0

"You blame the Captain for sealing the tunnel, but it was the Commander's decision, and most of the rest of us supported it," Anders said unexpectedly, as they headed Topside.

Armin glared at the man. He didn't know him well enough to talk to him about it.

"Personally, I think the Brauns and Hoover and Ymir would all have fought on their side. And those six against the Female Titan are pretty good odds," Anders stated.

"Would you say the same if it was Bauer who was left behind, trapped in the Outside?" Armin demanded.

Anders snorted derisively. "Tch. I think you forget who you're talking to. The Corps already abandoned me and Bauer Outside. We had a four day walk back through Titan infested land, us and Rickard and Mitchell."

"That wasn't the same at all. It wasn't intentional, deliberate," Armin argued.

"No, it wasn't," Anders conceded. "But that didn't make the danger any less real. You could look at it that it was worse. No one even knew we were alive, that we were out there. No one knew to look for us, to try to rescue us. But if Yeager and Ackerman don't return, as soon as he's free to, the Captain's going to go looking for them, and I know him well enough to know that he won't come back until he finds them. That's the kind of man he is.

"And knowing the Commander, he'll make a mission of it, because otherwise Levi would go looking on his own, and the last time Levi was out there alone, he nearly died. He would have, if it wasn't for the three of you. That's the other reason the Commander will make it a mission. You and Yeager and Ackerman saved Levi's life. You didn't see what the Commander was like with the Captain gone, you only heard about it. That wasn't all the concussion. So have some faith in your superiors and in your friends, and stop making Levi feel guiltier than he already does.

"I wouldn't say this to just anyone, but I know you're Levi's friend. What he did, leaving Yeager and Ackerman behind, it's killing him. He was out cold for three days, the memory is still fresh and raw, and it's eating him alive. He almost completely lost it when we were scouting before, I almost had to abort the mission and bring him back, before he got us both killed. So as his friend, stop being so wrapped up in your own pain that you don't see his. Stop hurting him and try helping him," Anders scolded.

Armin's resentment and anger sputtered and died with Anders' words, leaving guilt in their wake. It's not that he hadn't known Levi was wallowing in guilt, but he just hadn't acknowledged it, because it was better to feel angry than helpless. He'd spent his entire life feeling helpless, until the past few weeks, and he'd hated it. Speaking out in defense of Eren to the Garrison had been the initial turning point, but he had failed. It wasn't until he'd helped save Levi that he'd finally felt worthy of his existing friends, and had been able to make new ones.

"You're right. I haven't been fair to Levi. Or even to the Commander. We're all expendable to him, I know that. He simply weighed the lives of everyone inside the Walls against Eren's and Mikasa's. It's nothing he hasn't done before, dozens of times. Every time he leads a mission, he knows there will be horrific casualties, but he keeps doing it, over and over, because someone has to. And he said Levi isn't in his acceptable losses column, but this time he was ready to blow the tunnel with Levi on the wrong side, if he was attacked, willing to sacrifice even him to protect the books and radio. I guess we all were. I didn't even try to stop Levi or go with him," Armin admitted shamefacedly.

"He doesn't blame you for it. Instead, he blames himself, for hurting you," Anders assured him, which actually made Armin feel worse, though he realized that wasn't Anders' intention.

They continued on in silence, but thankfully now it felt companionable, rather than accusing.

But they made it less than halfway to the surface when they drew back, just in the nick of time, before the soldiers spotted them. There must have been close to two dozen soldiers, an absurd number, complete overkill for trying to keep Lurkers from heading towards the surface. But far scarier was the fact that half of them were MPs, but the other half were Garrison soldiers. And what was worse, even more incomprehensible, was that these soldiers from the two branches of the military that normally despised one another seemed completely at ease with one another.

_What the hell happened, while we were gone?_

Armin hadn't even known about the blockades preventing Lurkers from leaving the Underground, the tollgates run by whichever criminal organization was currently the most powerful in that particular section of the subterranean City, until he and Eren and Mikasa and Levi had come through Sigma Gate, on their way back from Mikasa's cabin, after their mission ended in disaster. The Scout uniforms the rest of them had been wearing hadn't stopped the toll collectors: it was Levi who had. Even dressed in civilian clothes, on crutches, all he had to do was stare at those men in contempt, and say his name. 

"_Get the fuck out of my way, assholes," Levi snapped, fuming at the attempted delay._

"_Seriously? You've got a lot of nerve, Dead Meat," one of the men had laughed, as six others surrounded them._

"_The name's not Dead Meat, it's Levi. Now get the fuck out of my way before I cut that smile off your face," Levi threatened, not even drawing his blade, just charging forward on his crutches._

"_Levi?"_

"_Holy shit! Levi the Knife?"_

"_Fuck! Captain Levi?"_

"_You mean those are real Scouts?"_

"_What the hell are they doing down here?"_

"_Who cares? Danny, let them through! Faster, damn it!"_

The blockade had melted away like magic.

But Levi wasn't here this time, and even if he were, the soldiers who had take over the toll blockade from whatever gang had been running it would more likely attack him on sight, too proud and stupid to realize how suicidal that was.

Anders signaled to him silently, and they backed away, into the shadows, down the stairs. Fortunately they'd been stealthy on the way up, or they'd have been spotted and caught.

Once they were safely away, Armin breathed a sigh of relief. "Why are the MPs and Garrison working together? Why are they controlling this exit? Do you think they're looking for stragglers from the Library, or for us? Do you think they're at the other exits, too?" Armin asked in concern.

"I have no idea. Let's find out if they're blocking the other exits, but carefully, because I suspect they are," Anders replied grimly.

They tried the three other routes Anders knew to the surface, and each was guarded by an excessive number of soldiers, the same even mix of Garrison soldiers and MPs.

"We need to report back to the Commander," Anders said in disgust and frustration. He hadn't seen any of his contacts among the soldiers, and couldn't have spoken to them without revealing himself to the others in any case.

Armin hated that they'd taken so long, only to return with no intelligence gathered at all.

0 0 0

Levi's relief at seeing Armin and Josef return safely was short-lived, once he heard the disturbing report.

"We might be able to bluff or explain our way through, but I'm not risking the radio and those books being seized by the Military Police, or the Garrison, especially if Pixis is no longer in charge of it," Erwin proclaimed.

"So we hide them, and then try to exit. We go back for them once their attention is diverted Topside again," Levi suggested.

"Do you know of anywhere secure enough to do that? Erwin questioned.

"Maybe, if it's still standing," Levi reluctantly replied. The house he and Furlan and Isabel had used as a base of operations had been sturdy and readily defensible, one of the ones that still had clear, piped running water, cold only of course. He refused to think about the fact that he now knew it to be the bug water from the Aqueduct canal. Besides, the bats had eaten all the damn bugs. Now it was batshit water. The thought almost made him heave.

"But I also know another way out, which I suggest we investigate before we ditch the radio and books, because it's a hell of a lot easier to steal something from someone who's left it behind than someone who's actively guarding it and ready to rip your throat out if you try," Levi added more viciously than necessary.

He hadn't wanted to ever see that cavern again, the one that looked out into the sky. It was a special, private place he'd only ever taken two people to before, Furlan and Isabel, and he didn't want the memory of that brief moment of peace, almost of contentment, tainted by all this. But much like when he followed Erwin out into the sun, it didn't look like he had much of a choice. Any other option would likely lead to them losing everything they had fought so hard to retrieve.

The only way out of the cavern into Sina was down a sheer wall 30 meters tall, an impassible route to anyone who didn't have maneuver gear. Fortunately for them, they all did.

_Damn it._ And now Erwin was giving him one of those looks that said, _"I know you're in pain and trying to be stoic about it. I can't do anything about it right now, but I'll fuck you over the top of my desk to help you forget, as soon as we're back on base."_ OK, so maybe the last part was more wishful thinking on his part rather than Erwin's, though the man had surprised him on more than one occasion.

"Alright. You're in the lead, Captain Levi. Everyone keep a special eye out for soldiers. Don't assume any of them are friendly, even if you know them, whether they're Garrison, MPs, or even Scouts. We suspect there's been a significant shift in the military hierarchy, we just don't know how far that shift extends, to which branches of the military, and how deep within those branches," Erwin cautioned, using his title for the first time in a long time on this mission, trying to restore structure and normalcy when the whole world had gone straight to hell.

"I want the radio, Hange, Kearney and O'Seanessey in the middle, where they can be best protected. Everyone's carrying books, so just be mindful of where your nearest comrade's pack is at all times, especially if he or she dies or is maimed. We can't afford to lose those books. Guard those packs with your lives." Erwin ordered.

Levi glared at him, but didn't contradict the order. Instead, he'd quietly ignore it, and save whoever needed saving, the books be damned. Irreplaceable or not, they were nowhere near as irreplaceable as every single man and woman here.

It was impossible to be stealthy and subtle with so many soldiers in uniform carrying a crate, but no one attacked or even harassed them, another clear sign that fear was even more rampant in the Underground than usual. He didn't think anyone would have the guts to follow them, but he ordered Josef to be on rear guard, because he'd be most likely to spot a tail, if there was one.

If the Underground felt this weird, this wrong, how would Sina feel? Were the spoiled, wealthy, entitled inhabitants cowering in their homes? Not likely, not unless something earth-shattering had occurred. Of course, feeling that explosion below their feet in the Underground would have shaken at least some of them for a while: the wire thin silver lining of those bastards blowing up the Library. He hated that, that every disaster, no matter how catastrophic, always contained a tiny sliver of good, though usually not for those who had weathered the chaos.

"Are you alright? You're looking crankier than usual," Hange asked.

He scowled at her for being out of position, even as Erwin reprimanded her, and ordered her back to the center of their formation.

"I'm fine," Levi insisted, afraid that if he didn't say anything, Hange would ignore the order, or at least delay and linger. Any other time that would have been fine, but Erwin was still too damn touchy right now because of everyone pledging their support to him.

Hange looked intently at him, then nodded, either satisfied, or seeing how anxious he was to placate Erwin.

When they finally neared the cavern entrance, a long, narrow crack barely wide enough to fit the crate, that didn't look like it led to anything, Levi insisted he scout inside before the rest of them entered. Erwin reluctantly agreed.

"Same signals as before," Levi ordered, signaling to Hange to rig the charges she'd rescued from the tunnel along the outside of the crack, on the off chance anyone was inside and listening.

"Be careful," Erwin ridiculously cautioned.

Hearing him say it, though, made Levi's heart just a little lighter. Erwin still gave a damn about him, even after what he'd revealed, and how the others had reacted.

"You too. Don't let anyone sneak up on you," Levi ordered. Then he slipped inside the crevice.


	56. Chapter 56 - Damn You All to Hell

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
CAUTION: Derogatory and insulting language towards gays and others.**

**If you like my **_**Shingeki no Kyojin**_**, **_**D. Gray-Man/Karneval,**_** and **_**Soul Eater**_** stories, you might also enjoy my published original four book high fantasy series, Descent of Kings, which includes strong female, multi-ethnic, bisexual and gay characters, and is available on Amazon and through the publisher, Dreamspinner. It's a tale of lost kingdoms, valiant and desperate heroes, and epic battles and quests, in a medieval world populated by humans, Elves, Dwarves, Ogres and mythical beasts, battling a god-like insane necromancer and his army of the dead.**

Chapter 56 – Damn You All to Hell

The moment Levi entered the cavern, into the muted sunlight trickling in from the opening to Sina, he knew something was horribly wrong, as the hairs on the back of his neck bristled and adrenaline spiked through him. '_Trap!'_ every instinct screamed.

He opened his mouth to give the warning cry, though he still wasn't even sure which one, not even questioning the instinct, when the ceiling caved in on him. As he fought to stay conscious, he realized it wasn't a cave-in at all, it was much worse, as his arms were wrenched up and back and manacles snapped onto his wrists, as an all too familiar knee ground into the back of his neck.

"Pathetic," Kenny said acidly, as Levi fought to breathe and his ankles were shackled by rough hands. There were at least four men working with Kenny. "I taught you better than that."

Levi would have cursed, or better still, yelled "Blow it!", so the others would cave in the cavern entrance, but he couldn't even breathe, and then his jaw was wrenched open and a ball gag jammed in. Kenny was using the same shifter proof gear on him that Dok had used on Sasha, Jean and Connie back on their base. The hatred he'd felt for Dok at that moment were like a candle to a torch for the rage he felt towards Kenny.

He silently cursed as Kenny removed the concealed lockpicks from both his wrists, but was then dumbfounded when he stopped there and rose, without searching him for any of his hidden knives. He almost wished he had. It would have confused the fuck out of Kenny that he only had the one, and Kenny might even have possibly missed that one, concealed as it was within the brace.

Levi stopped struggling against the chains at the feel of a razor sharp blade at his throat, belatedly realizing why Kenny hadn't searched him for concealed weapons. _Fuck!_ Kenny didn't need to remove his knives, if he was just going to slaughter him like a trussed up pig.

"Commander Erwin, this is Lieutenant Commander Ackerman of the Military Police. You are surrounded and under arrest," Kenny called out coolly. "Captain Levi has been incapacitated and chained. You and your men have exactly 20 seconds to enter this cavern, disarm and kneel at my feet, or Levi's throat will be slit and the snipers positioned in the buildings surrounding you and the entrance will open fire, shooting to kill. If you allow this to reach that point, I guarantee none of you will survive. 20…19…"

_What fucking snipers? I didn't see anyone, and they wouldn't have let Hange set the charges, if they were there, would they have? He's bluffing, he has to be. And since when was this fucker the Lieutenant Commander? There's no such rank._ Or at least, there hadn't been a week ago, when they entered the tunnel. _What the fuck is going on?_

Precious seconds passed without a single sound coming from the cavern entrance.

Would Erwin light the fuses, take out the entrance, and find another way out of the Underground? Would he sacrifice him, to save the radio and books? Would Kenny really slit his throat or was it a bluff?

"Don't kill Levi and don't open fire. We're coming in peacefully," Erwin called.

Levi heard the sounds of steps, not running and attacking, but hurrying. He couldn't see the damned entrance, could only listen and try to hear how many feet, try to tell if anyone was hanging back, as Kenny kept counting down.

"Lev…" Erwin's concerned call was cut mid-breath, to the sounds of a scuffle, and the clank of chains.

"Don't be idiots! You can see that you're completely outnumbered and surrounded. Freeze, the rest of you, or we open fire," a cold, all too familiar voice demanded.

_Dok! That bastard!_

Kenny surprisingly turned Levi to face the others, so he could see what was going on. To his relief Levi saw Erwin, chained like he was, but so far appearing unharmed. So was Hange. And strangely Armin. The rest of their men were surrounded, being held at gunpoint, but so far not restrained.

Levi helplessly watched Erwin clench his hands into fists futilely, the chains now connecting his wrists to his ankles ensuring Erwin was as powerless as he was. Levi saw his jaw clench as well, as Dok stood over him, shaking his head, a look of cold disgust on his face.

"You're such a damned fool, Locksley, letting it come to this. You make me sick. You were born with everything a man could want, wealth, a title, respect, and you threw it all away for a pipedream, just like your namesake," Dok accused his voice dripping with scorn.

_Locksley? What the fuck? How the fuck many secret names does that bastard Erwin have?_

"Locksley?" a voice asked curiously, one Levi didn't recognize, as a soldier strode into view.

Levi stiffened and his breath caught. The man was wearing a Garrison uniform, but that wasn't what had his attention: it was the bolo tie at his throat, the distinctive emblem of the Commander, the one that belonged around the Old Man's neck, not this bastard's, that had him riveted, as he scanned the man's disturbingly familiar face: middle-aged, blond hair so pale it was almost white, intense steel gray eyes, chiseled jaw, hard chin, not a trace of laugh lines around his eyes or mouth. Not one of Pixis's inner circle, at least, not any of those he'd met, and in spite of the naggingly familiar features, he couldn't place him. _Is Pixis already dead, or awaiting execution?_

"Back when we were kids, and still friends, Edward always saw himself as a champion of the people, a self styled Robin Hood, like the original former noble, Robin of Locksley. I'm sure you know the story. Edward used to call me Richard the Lionhearted. Marie, of course, was Maid Marion. After she chose me over him, I suppose in his eyes, I became the villainous Prince John. Yet here I am, where I have always been, a faithful man supporting his King, like any good, loyal soldier. He's the one inciting rebellion, and trying to overthrow the monarchy."

0 0 0

Erwin had been fighting to get free, not for himself, but because Ackerman was still holding a knife to Levi's throat, and he was afraid he was going to use it even though they'd surrendered. At Nile's words, Erwin stopped struggling and stared at his former friend, carefully hiding his confusion. _What the hell is Nile talking about?_

Dok looked down at him, as cold and aloof as if they were strangers. "There's no way you're getting out of this. We caught your whole merry band right along with you. Except for Little John. Zacharius seems to have disappeared. But of course, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

_It was never Robin Hood, it was King Arthur's court, Camelot, the knights of the round table. I was Arthur Pendragon, he was Lancelot, and later, Marie was Gweneviere. When we were in training together, Mike became Merlin for a while, until he overheard us and said he was Percival. We were surprised as hell that he knew what we were talking about enough to make that distinction. Why would Nile bring all that up now, after all these years, but the wrong story? What's he trying to tell me?_

Memory stirred, of their last true conversation, the day he found out Nile had proposed to Marie, and she'd said yes, the day his best friend had betrayed him and stolen the woman he loved.

"_Damn it, Eddie, don't you remember what we talked about, about Arthur and Lancelot, about Merlin and Gweneviere? Lancelot and Gweneviere never betrayed Arthur. They were trying to protect him from himself. Arthur never truly loved Gweneviere, he only loved the ideal of her. It wasn't about Lancelot and Gweneviere being selfish and self-serving, of them loving Arthur less than they loved each other, it was about loving Arthur enough to push him into doing what he should have done all along. _

"_How the hell was I supposed to know I was wrong, that Mike wasn't your Merlin, when you keep everything so damned close to your vest? But that doesn't mean your Merlin isn't still out there, waiting for you to find him. Hate me if you want, even hate Marie if you must, just stop hating yourself long enough to allow yourself to find him, you pigheaded ass."_

Lancelot betrayed Arthur, in the basest way, but Nile always saw it differently, he swore he'd done what was in Arthur's best interest, that he'd been loyal to him to the end. And Nile just said he was faithfully supporting his King, as he always had_. Shit. Is that what Nile is trying to tell me? To stop fighting, and trust him, after everything that's happened? Is he claiming he's still loyal to me, still my friend?_

_What does that mean about Mike? Did he really disappear? Was it Ackerman capturing or killing him, or Mike taking proactive action, escaping ahead of his own arrest?_

To Erwin's further confusion, the knife was removed from Levi's throat and then the ball gag was removed from his mouth. "If you start barking, I'll muzzle you again," Kenny threatened.

"What's the meaning of this?" Erwin demanded, with all the calm, haughty aplomb and indignant fury of an insulted nobleman. "Where's Mike, you backstabbing bastard?" Erwin snapped, stopping his physical struggle, and launching a verbal attack instead, stalling for time to figure out what the hell was going on, even as an MP appeared from the crevice to the outside they'd all entered from, one of the snipers they'd belatedly spotted, far too late to escape from them.

"That's all of them, sir," he reported to Dok.

"Tell the others to remain alert. Yeager and Ackerman are missing. It's possible they're a distance away, being kept in reserve," Dok ordered, facing his subordinate, but his eyes were locked on Erwin's, instead of the man he was speaking to. "The last thing we need is to be ambushed by a Titan shifter who isn't working with us." As he made the chilling claim, his eyes shifted to the right for just a moment, towards the unknown Garrison soldier wearing the symbol of the Commander.

Erwin's carefully kept his face impassive, as his thoughts raced_. Is Nile warning me that man is a Titan shifter?_

"Yes sir!" the MP replied, and exited.

As soon as he was gone, Dok turned to face him, his eyes now accusing. "Edward Reiss, you are under arrest for treason. Levi Ackerman, you are being held in protective custody as a material witness, along with Zoe Hange, Armin Arlert, and the rest of your men."

"No, wait, you can't! Eddie wasn't guilty of killing the Reiss family. I have proof," Historia claimed anxiously.

"We are aware that he is not guilty of that particular crime, Historia Reiss. However, he has been implicated in a plot to assassinate the King and to seize the throne," Dok replied.

"Bullshit! Whatever lying fucker told you that is full of shit!" Levi snarled at Dok. "And my name isn't Ackerman, you strutting prick."

"The charge is immutable, a deathbed confession made by Duke Helmut Reiss," Dok claimed dispassionately.

Erwin stiffened. _My father is dead? And he's trying to bring me to hell with him?_

"As for your surname, Captain Levi, you can discuss your pedigree with your father until you're blue in the face, as long as it's not in my presence. I've heard quite enough about you from the man over the years," Dok complained.

0 0 0

Levi would have been seething with fury, if he weren't so terrified for Erwin. And for himself, as Kenny twisted and yanked, and suddenly he was struggling to breathe. All Kenny needed to do was shift his position by a centimeter and his throat would be crushed.

"Ackerman, I think you're pinning your son a little too tightly," Dok stated, as if he were discussing the weather.

"But Nile, I thought you wanted to see his face turn blue. That **was** what you said. But perhaps I misunderstood. I thought you wanted silence, and there's nothing quite as silent as a man who can't breathe," Kenny said smugly as Levi continued to asphyxiate.

Then the knee was lifted and the ball gag was stuffed back in his mouth.

"Playtime is over, children. You've both gotten what you came for. Now it's my turn," the unfamiliar Commander said, his eyes raking across them and settling on Hange. "Your name is Zoe Hange, correct? The clever little monkey who reinvented dynamite?"

The chill in the man's voice, the deceptively mild tone betraying deadly threat, had Levi focusing on the man's face again, desperately trying to place it. He knew he'd seen this fucker before somewhere. _Why the hell can't I remember?_ _And why the hell am I the only one they've gagged?_

Levi felt his heart seize: he'd never thought he'd see anyone with eyes worse than Kenny's, but suddenly this man's were. They had merely looked intense and intelligent before, the color of a freshly forged and cooled steel blade, polished to a brilliant shine, sharp and cutting in their intensity, but now they were blazing with an inner fire, the eyes of a madman.

"Yes," Hange agreed cautiously, apparently seeing at least some of what he was, sensing the man was dangerous, deadly.

"Commander Edward Reiss is the one who gave the order to use dynamite on my daughter. But you're the one who created the weapon, laid it on top of her, while she was helpless, and lit the fuses," the man said, in a falsely calm voice that had Levi's heartbeat skyrocketing in terror for Hange, but he couldn't move or even shout to warn the others to protect her, even as all the implications of the man's words tore through him. If Leonhart was his daughter, he was also over 100 years old, which meant he must be a Titan shifter, which meant they were well and truly fucked.

"Your daughter?" Hange asked, frowning in confusion, even as she shook her head. "That's not poss…" her words ended in a gurgle, as she fell sideways onto the cold cavern floor, blood spurting from her severed carotid artery and jugular veins painting the ground and everyone around her a horrific, vivid red.

Levi's silent scream of her name was echoed aloud by Kearney, who ran to her, vainly trying to stem the flow of blood with bicep, his forearms sword blades. A moment later Liam was there, but his hands were just as ineffectual, as Armin begged them to save her.

Levi hadn't thought anyone could be faster or deadlier with a knife than Kenny, but Leonhart had just proven him wrong, as after a few more convulsive twitches, Zoe lay still.

Kearney shook his head in shock and grief above her, as he pressed his ear to her heart. Then he rose, wheeling on her murderer. "Ye murdering bastard!" Kearney roared as he lunged, his prosthetic sword arms raised.

He was met by Kenny with a boot to the stomach that had him falling to the ground gasping for breath.

"We'd prefer to keep this one alive, Commander Leonhart. He might not look like much, but he's the best maneuver gear mechanic we have, and some of my squad are having issues with the higher performance gear we've been testing that I'd like him to resolve. Unless, of course, you haven't filled your quota of killing women and cripples for the day," Kenny challenged silkily. "Personally, I've always found that the continued suffering of live enemies is far more satisfying and efficient for keeping the peace than a quick kill, but it takes a strong man to keep breathing while his enemies still are."

_Bullshit! That asshole is the one who taught me to never leave live enemies. What game are you playing? Zoe, don't be dead. You're a shifter now._ If Marcel could survive for five years, exsanguinated by Dr. Yeager, then maybe she could survive having her throat slit. It was a frantic hope, and Levi feared, an irrational one, but he couldn't lose Zoe again, this time permanently.

For a moment, Levi thought Kenny had overplayed his hand, that he was going to see the two men battle to the death, and for the first time ever, he thought that twisted fucker might actually lose that fight, even if Leonhart hadn't been a shifter, but instead, the newly minted Commander laughed.

"It's been a long time since a man's had the balls to say something like that to my face. You're a breath of fresh air, Ackerman. And here I thought I was surrounded by pussies and weaklings," he said, his gaze flicking contemptuously to the pale and shaken MPs standing nervously around Dok and the equally pallid Garrison soldiers clustered around him, another clear sign that they weren't Pixis' men.

Dok himself looked completely unimpressed by the carnage and chaos, as if he'd been expecting it.

"It will only get worse over time, of course," Leonhart commented. "It's like I told Dok here: it's clear you people never figured out how to properly keep slaves. You sent your strongest and bravest on that death march, when you should have sent the infirm, the old and the young, the useless ones. Instead, you've weakened your breeding stock. You'll see the mistake clearly within the next generation," he stated bluntly.

"Yes, we're quite fortunate to have you here to instruct us," Kenny stated drily, and the Commander laughed again.

"By God, I like you, Ackerman! Name your poison and I'll buy you a round, maybe even a bottle," he magnanimously offered. Then he turned to Erwin. "Speaking of Annabelle, she should have caught up to your little 'training exercise' in Shiganshina. But I can't help noticing she's not here. As Dok already pointed out, that Yeager feller and the Ackerman girl are missing too. Care to enlighten me as to why that is, Commander? Or do you have any other pawns you'd be willing to sacrifice in this little chess game you've been playing? I can keep killing your men all day," he said, his gaze going from Erwin to Jean, the closest person to him.

_Shit! No!_ Levi began fighting against the damned chains, knowing it was futile. Zoe might still be alive, but Jean would be dead if this bastard got anywhere near him with one of his knives.

Armin called out. "Scout Armin Arlert! Permission to speak, sir!" There was hatred in his voice, cold fury, but Levi wasn't certain if it was directed at Commander Leonhart, for possibly killing Hange and threatening Jean, or at Erwin, for potentially killing Eren and Mikasa, for leaving them behind.

"I'm listening," Commander Leonhart said, sounding neither amused nor intrigued.

"Annie's dead. She and Reiner and Bertolt and Ymir and Eren, they're all dead. All the Titan shifters are dead. And Mikasa is dead too. We're the only ones left, of everyone who set out on our mission," Armin claimed.

Levi would have believed him, if he didn't know the truth. The kid had gotten ridiculously proficient at lying. Unless he truly believed it.

Leonhart's eyes narrowed. "And how the hell would any of you been able to kill my Annabelle? Or are you trying to tell me her team turned against her?"

"I don't know what you mean, when you say 'team', sir. I guess you must mean the other shifters, except for Eren. But Mikasa and Hange were the ones who killed Annie, with dynamite arrows. That was the whole point of Hange inventing the dynamite, of our bringing it with us. It was to strap to arrows, to use against the Titan shifters, specifically, against the Armored and Colossal Titan, Reiner Braun and Bertolt Hoover, if we ran into them. Because it was our only hope of killing them," Armin claimed.

"You're trying to tell me you didn't only take out Ice Queen, but you took out White Knight and Colossus as well? Bullshit. Reiner Braun is one of the toughest sons of bitches it's ever been my privilege to command. And as for Bertolt Hoover, no one protects their comrades like fags, son. If it was up to me, I'd have stocked my entire unit with nothing but. My predecessor in your Garrison might have been a traitor and an insurgent, but that's one thing he got right. It's a damned shame a bunch of those fags of his are going to follow Pixis to the gallows," Commander Leonhart said, his voice thick with what sounded like genuine regret.

Armin, who had been red-faced with rage before, turned completely pale. "Commander Pixis was hanged?" he whispered, horrified, asking the question Levi wouldn't have dared, even if he hadn't been gagged. Because he knew the answer was going to gut him.

Commander Leonhart's eyes lit with glee. "No, not yet. First he's going to watch his cousin burn. We're going to have us a good old fashioned book burning, complete with a librarian, just to liven things up a bit! Then we'll hang him," the Commander said gleefully, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

_Shit! Hypatia! That fucker's got Hypatia!_

When Liam lunged, Levi's heart was in his throat, but thankfully, Bauer tackled him, before he could get himself killed by Leonhart, or shot by one of the men surrounding them. Of all the Garrison soldiers and MPs surrounding them, not one of them looked to be on their side.

Thankfully, Liam's attack had taken the focus off Armin, which was good, because the kid was going to get himself killed at this rate.

"And you were complaining about the caliber of your men, Dok, except for Ackerman here? Meanwhile, from what I've seen, the notorious Survey Corps is stocked with little boys and cripples. It's no wonder you've been losing the War, children. Speaking of children, I want to know what exactly happened to my daughter. In detail. And I'd better believe you, or there will be hell to pay, and you're looking at the devil incarnate." He said it with sick glee, as if he was proud of whatever he'd done to earn that moniker.

Levi had thought that title was already taken, by Kenny, but this fucker might actually be more deserving of it, from what he'd seen already, not to mention from spawning that crazy bitch Annie Leonhart.

"Armin already told you the truth, sir," Jean claimed bravely. "We were in Shiganshina on a training exercise, to test the dynamite on live Titans, to ensure Squad Leader Hange's hypotheses were accurate, that the dynamite could actually kill Titans, at least regular ones. None of us expected the Female Titan or the Armored or Colossal to be there. We still have no idea where they came from. We thought they might have followed us through the tunnel, that they killed the soldiers guarding Sigma Gate. We weren't even sure the Gate would still be here, when we got here. But now we know how they got through. Apparently, when you removed Pixis from power, you left the Gate unguarded.

"The three shifters were working together. They attacked us simultaneously and tried to ambush us. If it wasn't for Mikasa, half of us would have been dead. She sacrificed herself, protecting the rest of us. It's because of her and Squad Leader Hange that we won, we survived. I thought it was insane, what we'd been planning, that it would never work, but the dynamite got them, while the rest of us fought them, distracting them.

"Yeager Titan, he was fighting the Female Titan, so she couldn't help the other two. But she was too strong for him, that damned armored crystal of hers, no matter where he hit or bit, she was just invulnerable, and he wasn't thinking, he was just fighting in a blind rage, because of Mikasa dying. The Female Titan tore him to pieces. But then Hange hit the Female Titan with a dynamite arrow while she was distracted killing Yeager. We got her, but we lost Eren and Mikasa doing it. She turned our victory into ashes." Jean sounded just as convincing as he had on the roof, facing Kenny. More so. His voice was so choked up, it sounded like he was truly mourning the loss of his friends. And he'd painted the Female Titan as a valiant warrior, instead of easy prey, so her father would be impressed with her death.

"I think we've heard enough. It's time for me to bring these men back to our base and continue to debrief them, to help build our case against Reiss. Once I'm done, I'll see that the ones we're not holding report to their base, to Commander Miller," Dok stated.

_Commander __**Miller**__? That fucker Miller got himself promoted to Commander in Erwin's place? Screw demoting him down from Squad Leader to Scout. Erwin should have let me gut that backstabbing bastard when I had the chance._

"No. None of these men and women are leaving here alive. They're all culpable in my daughter's death, and it makes no difference where Reiss dies," Leonhart said calmly, as if he weren't facing armed soldiers, most of whom weren't in chains.

_Shit! Fuck!_ Levi struggled harder against his chains.

"What about my son? I don't care about these others, you can have them, but you told me he'd be remanded to my custody," Kenny challenged, even as Levi felt something hard and metal pressed into his hand by that fucker, not one of his lockpicks, but by the feel of it, a damned key, even as he felt Kenny shift his position above him, taking the pressure off his back and neck, shifting the bulk of his weight to his opposite leg, clearly readying himself to spring.

"That was before I knew he was a party to my daughter's murder. Step aside, Ackerman, unless you want to join him in hell," Commander Leonhart stated.

Kenny attacked as he always did, without warning, wordlessly, one grapple shooting towards Leonhart's head and a second for his chest. But Leonhart was no longer there to be hit. Instead, one of the men behind him was impaled, as he dove aside, and then, with a flash of green light, and a cracking boom, he shifted.

"Open fire!" Dok ordered, and Levi braced to be hit, as he frantically twisted the key in the cuffs behind his back. But to his shock, Dok's men weren't shooting at them, or even at Kenny, but at the Garrison soldiers who had been surrounding them. Half of them were, at any rate. The other half began attacking the enormous hairy Titan Leonhart had transformed into. Levi had never seen anything like it. It looked more like an animal than a man.

"Protect the Corps and take Leonhart and his men down!" Dok ordered, apparently for the sake of their men, not his own, who already were working in a coordinated attack, even as to Levi's shock Dok began unfastening Erwin's chains.

"Damn it, Edward, I knew that someday you'd be the death of me. If I don't make it out of this alive, you need to know that Percival is in hiding with Gweneviere and the children in Camelot, the last place anyone would look for them. She can explain to you what's been happening. I'm truly sorry about Hange. I didn't expect him to kill her, but at least Ackerman and I kept Merlin safe for you," Dok apologized to Erwin, spouting nonsense, as he yanked off the cuffs around his wrists and ankles. Levi had no idea what the fuck he was talking about, but from the shell shocked look on Erwin's face, he seemed to.

And then Dok pressed the key into Jean's hand, fired his grapples and drew his blades, heading for the bestial, hairy Titan, joining Kenny in what had been a solo attack, as the other men who'd been attacking it were already dead at its feet.

"Damn it, Nile! Everyone, protect the surviving MPs, join them in attacking the Beast Titan!" Erwin ordered their stunned men, even as he fired his grapples and swooped in to attack.

Levi finally got the last fetter off his ankle and stood, his leg screaming in protest, in spite of the brace, even as Jean started to free Armin, while Bauer and Lenz leapt into the fray. Liam was pulling Kearney toward a thick stalagmite, where he'd be less likely to be trampled and killed, since he hadn't recovered from Kenny's kick yet.

Levi fired his grapples, heading for the Beast Titan. He had no idea why the MPs were helping them, instead of arresting or killing them, especially Dok. He still couldn't wrap his mind around Kenny giving him the damned key, either, instead of leaving him to be stepped on.

Levi had to admit, both that asshole Dok and that fucker Kenny could fight, though. So far neither one of them had taken a fatal hit. Considering the growing pile of dead MPs lying at the Beast Titan's feet, that was saying something.

Then an arrow flew past the rapidly moving Beast Titan, just missing him, impacting the wall of the cavern a number of meters behind him and exploding, filling the cavern with an echoing boom that had Levi diving for the nearest stalagmite, terrified the ceiling was about to cave in on top of them, but fortunately, aside from a shower of rock, there was no perceptible damage.

He followed the path of the arrow back to its source and saw MPs flowing into the cave, each of them equipped with sniper rifles slung over their shoulders, and bows in their hands, wearing the distinctive badges of the First Interior Squad: Kenny's men.

Unfortunately, Levi wasn't the only one to discover the source of the danger. The Beast Titan propelled himself with impossible speed, using the knuckles of his hands on freakishly long, hairy arms like a second set of legs, galloping almost like a horse, charging towards the men endangering him.

Levi cursed as in twos and threes archers were flung into walls, into the ceiling, torn apart by bare hands and prehensile feet, most before they could release a single arrow, the few hasty shots missing their mark, even as the Corps and the other MPs attacked. This Titan had the fighting skill and intelligence of the Female Titan combined with the animal like ferocity of Banshee and speed nearly that of Quicksilver. He was a league beyond anything they'd ever seen.

Levi expected to see Kenny had vanished, or that he was impassively watching the battle, and was shocked to see him instead attacking the Beast Titan from behind, in concert with Dok, as if the two men slew Titans every day.

The Beast Titan spun around as if he had eyes in the back of his head and had seen them coming, and the two men barely swung to safety, as he lunged for them.

"I'm surprised, Dok. I honestly never saw this betrayal coming. I didn't think you gave a damn about the Corps, or that you had the balls or brains for it," the Beast Titan taunted, he actually fucking spoke, in Commander Leonhart's voice, not the way that Hange had, a word here or there, but in full sentences, as if he was still human. "As punishment, I'll make sure you see the ones you were trying to protect die right in front you."

Levi's heart slammed in his chest at the threat, he was moving to protect Erwin even as the enormous hairy hand shot out towards him, faster than anything he'd ever seen, like when that bastard slit Hange's throat. He knew with sick dread that he'd never be fast enough to reach Erwin in time, it would be like watching Furlan die all over again, that he'd be too slow to save Erwin. But suddenly Dok was there, slicing through Erwin's cable, changing the arc of his swing entirely, knocking him to safety as the second cable held. But the save cost Dok, as the Beast grabbed him instead.

Levi expected to hear the crack of bone, to see agony tear across the man's face, but suddenly, inexplicably, Kenny was there, hacking off the fingers that held Dok, freeing him, risking his life to save his Commander, yanking the Beast's prize right out of his hand, as he attempted to swing them both to safety.

They would have both been dead, if Levi didn't block the follow up swipe with his blades, running up the fucker's arm, heading for his face. He couldn't believe he'd just saved Kenny and Dok, two of the people he hated most in the world, but Dok had saved Erwin, and not for the first time, his world had gone completely insane.

Levi realized the mistake in his strategy when the teeth came for him. He'd expected this Titan shifter to be like the others, that it wouldn't try to bite him, like a regular Titan would; Hoover had stressed that a Titan shifter who eats people gets taken out by the others, but it was clear Leonhart played by different rules. So this was how it was going to end, after fighting his way into the light at the cost of his friends, his family: he was going to die in the Underground after all, eaten by a fucking a Titan, like Furlan, like Isabel, like so many of their men.

The body slammed into him out of nowhere, there was a guttural cry of pain, and a spray of blood, and then they were both falling, and he knew, he just fucking knew it was Erwin, that he'd been bitten, even as he felt half the grasp released, as an arm was sheared away. Levi couldn't see a damned thing, his face full of uniform, as the sharp tang of blood filled the air, even as the figure holding him twisted, to take the fall on his back, protecting him to the end.

A flash of chartreuse lightning flooded the cavern with light as first thunder and then a Titan roared, but Levi didn't care who was shifting, Hange, back from the dead again, or Lenz, after lying to them, or Armin, somehow turned into a Titan like his friends. Levi scrambled up off of Erwin, frantic to help him, to save him, certain he too late, that he was dying, arms shaking wildly as he levered himself off the man he loved.

Levi froze, staring in uncomprehending shock into pain filled eyes that weren't beloved blue, but shit brown in a rapidly paling face as Dok clutched the heavily bleeding stump of his left arm. Fortunately, unlike when Mikasa was bitten, Dok's arm had been bitten off a good six centimeters below the shoulder, there was enough left to apply a tourniquet. Levi unfastened the man's belt with hands shaking so badly from adrenaline and fear that he could barely undo the buckle.

"Why?" Levi choked out, tears of grief for Erwin still wetting his eyes, roughening his voice, his heart still hammering in panic for the man he loved, as he tried to wrap his mind around the new reality, that it wasn't Erwin, he wasn't maimed or dying or dead, as he fastened the impromptu tourniquet to the remains of the bloody bicep.

"For Arthur. Because I've always… been a loyal knight… and you, of all the people… it could have been… are his goddamned Merlin," Dok forced out through teeth clenched in pain. "And because… you're Kenny's son… and he killed nearly a hundred MPs… after losing Melena. He'd kill… the rest of us… if you died. And I think… you're the only two… who can save us… from that madman, Leonhart."

Levi gaped at the man in wide-eyed disbelief, not because he was spouting some delusional bullshit about ancient myths, or because he thought he was Kenny's son and that he'd ever help that bastard do anything, but because the fucking Commander of the Military Police fucking knew Kenny was the Numbers Killer, that he'd killed nearly a hundred MPs, but instead of arresting the man, he'd promoted him to Captain of the First interior Squad, and now, apparently, to Lieutenant Commander, what must be his official right hand, his second in command.

He didn't have time for this shit. He secured the tourniquet, wrapped one arm around Dok, launched a grapple into the stalagmite Kearney was behind, and reeled them in. He set Dok down beside Kearny, in what was suddenly becoming their field hospital and then assessed the battlefield, paling at what he saw.

Hange's Titan form was steaming away, and every single one of their men and the surviving MPs were battling the Beast Titan, but somehow that fucker was winning, he was holding his own against seasoned Scouts and Kenny's own personal Squad. Even as he watched, another MP got splattered against the rock and a second was pulverized by a spin kick at an impossibly height, the flexibility and dexterity of the monstrous Titan deadly.

Thankfully Erwin and the brats and at least most of the rest of their men were still alive. To keep them that way, he'd work with the devil himself. Without hesitating he launched a grapple that propelled him to Kenny's side. "Use me, damn it," he snarled at Kenny.

"Lead your own damned men. I'm busy," Kenny snapped back, and then he was gone.

Cursing and fuming in fury, seeing Armin, Jean, Sasha and Connie already coordinating their own attack, Levi headed for Erwin, Josef, and Liam. Ominously, there was no sign of Bauer, who usually fought beside Josef, or of Lenz.


	57. Chapter 57 - The Enemy of My Enemy

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 57 – The Enemy of My Enemy

_Leonhart's going to kill Hypatia and Pixis. This is the man who drove Annie crazy, who pushed her to meet his impossible ideals. He turned his own daughter into a monster because she wasn't good enough for him. He tried to kill Hange in cold blood. He murdered her right in front of us. If she wasn't a Titan, she'd be dead. But she's not, right? Please don't be dead. _

Armin loved Hypatia as a friend, as his first love, he loved Pixis almost like a grandfather, and Annie had been a good friend, before she betrayed them, but it was the thought of what Leonhart had done to Hange that had him seething with hatred and burning with the need for revenge. He knew no one else would understand, that they'd never see it, but Hange was the closest thing to a mother he'd known in years. Leonhart needed to die.

Unlike the MPs, Armin wasn't a novice at fighting Titans, but this was no ordinary Titan, as the Beast Titan proved again when he nearly took out both Connie and Sasha, as they double-teamed him with their signature "high-low" attack. Armin grappled over to where they lay panting, using a shattered and fallen stalactite as cover, reaching them just as Jean did. "Try it again, but this time with me and Jean going for his Achilles's tendons at the same time," Armin ordered, as if he outranked them, or as if the Commander had put him in charge of their group, like he usually did Jean.

"You really think we can take him out? It's like he has eyes in the back of his head. He knows where we're going to be before we even get there. I don't think even Levi can take him," Sasha claimed nearly breathlessly, as some of the others attacked, giving them a desperately needed moment of respite.

"Leonhart doesn't think so either. He's arrogant, smug in his superiority and perceived immortality. We're going to use that against him," Armin stated confidently. He turned and gasped, watching helplessly as Erwin was attacked by Leonhart, certain he was about to die, but then, miraculously, Commander Dok saved him, nearly at the cost of his own life. Then, inexplicably, Kenny Ackerman of all people saved Dok. Levi had told them Kenny didn't care about anyone but himself, so why had he saved him?

Then Armin's heart was in his throat as Levi ran up the Beast Titan's arm and it turned its head, lunging for Levi with its teeth.

Armin heard Sasha scream Levi's name in denial as she ran towards him, too far away to reach. He Connie and Jean were at her heels, but then Nile Dok was suddenly there again, pushing Levi out of the way. The Beast Titan ripped a bloody chunk out of Dok, and the two men fell together. Then there was a flash of chartreuse lightning, and boom of thunder, and a Titan shifter dove onto the Beast Titan.

"Hange!" Armin yelled in relief, but his relief was short lived. Unlike what they'd told him, about how Hange maintained her intellect in Titan form, her face was twisted in fierce, animalistic fury, and her attack was vicious but mindless, completely wild. Because of it, within moments she was in deadly danger, no match for the more calculated and deliberate ferocity of the Beast Titan.

She fell at his feet, barely fending off lethal blows aimed at the nape of her neck. It was brutally apparent that the Beast Titan wasn't just trying to defeat another Titan, he was trying to kill the woman who had transformed into it, as he tore off both her Titan's hands, and clawed at her Titan's neck, which was desperately and poorly protected by the bloody stumps of her wrists. The Beast Titan exposed Hange's back, clawing bloody furrows into it, as her Titan from began to steam.

"Now! We have to save her! I've got right," Armin yelled, as he shot out his grapples, heading for the Beast Titan's right ankle. Jean flashed past him, heading for the left, and Sasha and Connie were a blur of motion above them, as they dove for the Beast Titan's neck.

But the bastard saw them coming, he aborted his attack on Hange and grabbed hold of a massive pillar of rock, a stalagmite and stalactite that had fused together, and swung around it, and attacked Sasha and Connie simultaneously, in midair, with his **feet. **How the hell were they supposed to fight this thing? It fought like an Aberrant, wild and unpredictable, but also not, because it was controlled, thinking, planning, always twenty steps ahead, like Annie when she sparred with them, years of training beyond anything they had ever seen.

Armin knew he wouldn't be in time to save Sasha, that Jean wouldn't be in time to save Connie, but he dove toward her anyway, because he wasn't going to let any more of his friends die; he'd die himself before he lost anyone else.

And then Levi was there, with Erwin, Anders, and O'Seanessey, which meant there was no one but Jean and maybe Krista left to save Connie, but he hadn't seen Krista in a while, he wasn't sure she was even still alive, so he aborted his rescue of Sasha and dove towards Connie, only to see three of Ackerman's men miraculously saving both of them before he and Jean could reach him.

Armin didn't know why, he didn't care why, all he knew was, the Beast was distracted, he was attacking both teams, fending them off, and that meant the back of his neck was vulnerable. Armin shot out his grapples, his blades raised high, going in for the kill, just seconds more and…

His eyes widened in horror as the head turned, the eyes stared, the mouth gaped, and then, for the second time in his too short life, a Titan's mouth closed over him. He smelled fetid breath, not like a Titan's, filled with rotting blood and entrails, and the sickly scent of boiling human flesh, not like a man's or dog's, but horrid and vile, like nothing he'd ever smelled. But this wasn't like the last time: a single maneuver gear cable was still unsevered, linking him to the outside, and he wasn't still an idealistic child, a green soldier frozen in fear. This time he wasn't going to let one of his friends get eaten saving him, the way Eren had.

With a roar of fury, a need for revenge, he carved a "V" out of the monster's left cheek from the inside, and dove through the bloody flap seconds before the jaws snapped shut, severing his line and nearly taking his legs with it. He was falling, both cables severed, no time to change out to auxiliaries, but he was breathing, alive and in one piece, covered in bloody steaming gore not his own, and he laughed wildly, in manic joy at the small victory, the first solid injury they'd dealt the monster, even as he plummeted towards the unforgiving stone floor, towards death, or crippling injury at best.

But the impact came from the side, not the ground, still meters from the ground, strong arms wrapped around him, a deep musky scent he knew anywhere. "Jean."

The landing was hard, a tumble of limbs, pain and disorientation, but no snap of bone, no screaming agony. Armin could hear Jean's heart thundering, pounding wildly, feel him shaking beneath him, arms wrapped so tightly around him he almost couldn't breathe.

"You better fucking both be alive!" Levi yelled.

Armin levered himself up on his left arm, gasping at the sudden sharp pain that shot through it and falling back down, belatedly realizing maybe he was injured after all and just too high on adrenaline to have felt it, as he turned to the battle, to make sure Levi was talking to them, that no one else had nearly died.

His eyes widened at what he saw. Erwin's and Kenny's teams were attacking the Beast Titan in what looked to be a coordinated flurry of attacks, as if they'd choreographed every blow as part of a well developed battle plan, and maybe to some extent they had, because Levi was fighting by Erwin's side, now, and he'd grown up trained by Kenny.

For the first time, the Beast Titan was put on the defensive, the look of smug superiority and disdain on the bestial face wavering.

The ferocity and speed of Levi's and Kenny's attacks in particular was astonishing, the way they moved together, the similarity of each strike. It was clear Kenny had taught Levi how to fight, even as the symmetry cracked and broke as Levi unleashed one of his signature spinning attacks, narrowly missing the nape of the beast's neck, instead carving out new bloody furrows in the cheek that had almost already fully healed. Armin half expected to see enormous teeth flying through the gaping hole, but there was only blood and gore as Levi gracefully escaping injury, in spite of the brace he still wore, and his other injuries and illness.

Armin almost missed seeing the arrow entering the Beast Titan's mouth, through the hole in his cheek, there was just a brief blur of motion, a look of consternation on the Beast Titan's face, and then an explosion, and now teeth were flying, they were raining down everywhere, teeth and pieces of teeth and jaw and gums, as the Beast Titan staggered, half his face blown away.

And then he was running, fleeing from the fight, or more likely, the deadly archer, and Armin felt a moment of relief and elation, until he heard Kenny yell. "Don't let him leave! We'll never trap him in a place like this again!"

His men fired grapples into his legs, some wrapping them around stalagmites, others being dragged helplessly behind it, but they were slowing the Beast Titan, he was stumbling, and both Kenny and Levi were diving in for the kill shot, the nape of the neck, only to be met by bony hands, protecting it, then flailing wildly, the light of madness in the Beast's eyes now, the reaction apparently animal instinct, not rational thought after all, he'd apparently lost his control with the massive injury, but he was still fighting as effectively as before.

Both Kenny and Levi went flying, and not in a good way. Fortunately Erwin was there to catch Levi, to prevent him from smashing head first into a stalagmite, and two of Kenny's men did the same for him.

It was at that moment, out of nowhere, while the Beast's hands were occupied, his face half blown away, his left eye a melted mess, that Krista attacked, rocketing down from the ceiling where she'd apparently been stealthily waiting, diving like a hawk for a mouse, both swordpoints extended and down like a beak, instead of using the bladed edges, a piercing weapon, like an arrow, jabbing towards the unprotected vulnerable spot at the nape of the neck, and astonishingly hitting it, the blades drilling in to the handguards, Krista slamming down into the back of its neck on top of them, in what was belatedly recognizable as a suicidal death plunge, as her maneuver gear grapples tore free from the ceiling, and she fell towards the stone floor, no one remotely near enough to save her, even as the Beast Titan toppled forwards, onto its face. Fortunately, Krista hit hairy lower back instead of rock, but still hard, rolling down off it even as it began to steam.

Armin tried using his right arm to rise instead, but it didn't seem to be working at all. He could only watch helplessly from his position on top of Jean as some of the others ran for Krista, relieved by the feeling of Jean's continued breathing, since he hadn't spoken, that at least for now, the two of them were both still alive, and it looked like it was over, that he hadn't lost anyone else after all.

0 0 0

Levi watched with narrowed eyes as Kenny swayed in his men's hold. Kenny never showed weakness, he could be dying and not, so it was extremely telling. That last attack, the hits they'd taken had been brutal, but Kenny looked like he'd taken the brunt of it, which meant he was vulnerable, that now might be the only time in his life he could actually kill the fucker.

Except that asshole had actually fought with them, not against them, six of his men were still alive and whole and would likely try to protect him, including at least one archer, and Dok's few surviving men likely would as well. Levi would have risked it anyway, but the bastard had fucking saved Erwin's life, so this time only, he got a pass.

Instead, he headed for the steaming carcass, because he needed to make sure that fucker was dead, not just the Titan, but the man inside it. And make sure Lenz or Reiss or whoever the fuck she was wasn't, because she wasn't moving, and the last thing they needed was Banshee out for vengeance, assuming she was still alive to seek it.

Levi headed for the body at a run instead of using his maneuver gear, because all the close stalagmites and stalactites had been shattered, and the body was dissolving away, so he couldn't easily grapple over to him: just another reason to hate the fucker, for all but destroying the cavern, if not the memories. He saw Lenz start to move, pulling herself along the fucker's hairy back, towards his head, which meant she too was concerned he wasn't dead yet.

But then Kenny was there, grappling directly onto Leonhart, who was barely visible, protruding from the steaming mess of his Titan form and Levi ran faster. Kenny was speaking, and he needed to hear what that fucker was saying to that shifter bastard, and whether he was replying.

"… for trying to eat my son and taking Nile's arm, you psychotic son of a bitch," Kenny snarled, what sounded like actual fury in his voice, and then he was stabbing downwards with both swords, the way Lenz had, not slitting the man's throat the way he normally killed. He stabbed again and a third time, but not viciously: methodically, precisely.

Then he spun, swords at the ready, facing him, the danger at his back, stunning Levi, because for a moment, he saw a quick flash of surprise and respect in that bastard's normally soulless gray eyes when they met his own. And remarkably, Kenny lowered the blades when he saw it was him, without the usual smug smirk indicating he wasn't a true threat, and he wiped the bright blood that wasn't steaming clear on the corpse's uniformed body.

"That's how you kill a shifter in human form: you destroy the brain," Kenny commented coolly, as if he was simply instructing Levi in yet another way to kill, but then suddenly, his swords were arcing up, and Levi cursed, raising his own, realizing the fucker had just been getting him to lower his guard, knowing he was just a fraction of a second too slow to block, that he was about to die, but to his astonishment the blades were met with two others at his side. Lenz. Lenz had saved him, he realized as he fell back.

"You killed my family!" Lenz yelled.

That's when he realized what had happened. Kenny wasn't attacking him: he was defending himself, from Lenz's attack. As with Leonhart, she'd actually almost managed to catch Kenny off guard. The thought both thrilled and infuriated him, because he wanted to be the one to best that bastard.

"Tch. I've killed dozens of people's families, but not yours, my dear. I simply killed the wife and children of your father. You're deluding yourself, if you think of the people who despised your very existence as your family," Kenny replied coolly, even as he parried her attacks with contemptuous ease.

"Damn it, Lenz, disengage! Stand down! He could have killed you three different times just now. Don't tempt him," Levi warned, knowing to get in the middle of the two could well prove deadly.

0 0 0

Erwin had just reached Nile when he heard Levi's warning. He saw Ackerman facing off both Levi and Historia and looked down at Nile, who was missing an arm, covered in blood and pale as death, torn.

"Go, Arthur. I'll still be alive when you get back," Nile promised, his words made into ones he could believe, a solemn vow to his King, by using the mythical name.

Erwin nodded and spun. "Historia, stand down!" Erwin demanded, shooting his grapples directly into Leonhart's body, instead of risking the instability of the rapidly disintegrating Beast Titan. He'd been tempted to attempt to anchor himself to Ackerman, in spite of the man unexpectedly saving his life, but he couldn't risk the inevitable retribution if he missed.

He flew towards the combatants, ready to risk his life against Ackerman to save Levi and Historia, not certain even the three of them combined could take down Ackerman. He was more demon than human. Even now he was watching him with narrowed eyes, ready to strike. Levi interposed himself between Ackerman and him and Historia, obviously afraid he was planning on risking the attack.

"How gratifying to finally see at least some of my intelligence was hereditary," Ackerman sniped in satisfaction.

0 0 0

Levi was infuriated the bastard was still insisting they were father and son, but this time his stomach churned at the reluctant realization that it might actually be true, or at least, that Kenny truly believed it to be, at least. Kenny had called him his son to Leonhart, as he killed him, when he hadn't even realized he was in earshot. _Why lie to a dying man?_ Kenny did nothing without purpose, but there was no point in lying to Leonhart.

"Why did you save Erwin?" Levi demanded, refusing to think about it anymore.

"As a favor to a friend," Ackerman replied calmly.

"You don't have friends. You have tools, weapons, pawns," Levis snapped.

"Perhaps you don't know me as well as you think you do," Ackerman replied, unperturbed. "Now, if this little drama is over, if you'll excuse me, Nile needs me."

Levi nodded once, tersely, and watched him go, making sure he didn't suddenly attack Erwin or Lenz. Then he bent over Leonhart's body, checking for a pulse, a heartbeat, breathing, to be sure the fucker was dead. He pulled the bloody bolo tie off from around the bastard's neck, because he didn't deserve to wear it, even in death; it belonged to the Old Man, and he was going to see to it he got it back. And then he beheaded the fucker, just to be certain he was dead, and completely obliterated his skull with his swords, until something the consistency of stew remained, the thought almost making him retch.

Then he turned to Lenz, who was glaring at Kenny, who was kneeling at Dok's side as if he actually gave a damn about the man.

"Excellent work, Historia. I'm proud of you," Erwin praised, clearly trying to draw her attention from Kenny.

She turned and looked at him in surprise, and then smiled grimly, triumph in her eyes. "He didn't see me coming."

"Tch. None of us saw you coming. Good job, kid," Levi echoed. He didn't call her brat, because she wasn't one of his brats: he wasn't about to trust her.

"I'm fine, Eddie. Go check on the others. I just need to calm down and catch my breath," Lenz claimed, though it was clear, now that Kenny was gone, that she was in pain. Once the adrenaline wore off, she might not even be able to stand.

"You're coming with us," Erwin ordered, obviously afraid she'd go after Kenny again, the moment their backs were turned.

"You can't keep me away from him forever. I'm going to kill him," Lenz swore, her voice iron.

"You need to stand in line. That fucker's mine. Just be aware it's a very short line, although a few hundred people used to be ahead of you," Levi cautioned, as they headed for Jean and Armin, who were still lying in a heap, from their last attack, though thankfully, both moving, alive, at least for the moment.

"How badly are you hurt?" Levi demanded when he reached them.

"I think both my arms might be broken," Armin hazarded.

"I'm afraid to find out," Jean admitted. "I think I might have been unconscious or something, I'm not really sure, but everything hurts when I try to move, which I guess is better than not feeling anything. At least I'm not missing any limbs or coughing up blood or anything."

Levi winced as Erwin immediately turned and looked in Dok's direction.

"Jean tried to protect me when we hit," Armin accused, his eyes both fierce and bright with unshed tears.

"Stop worrying brat. Like Jean said, he'll live. Both of you stay there. With this many MPs, they have to have medics stashed somewhere," Levi reasoned.

They went to Sasha and Connie next. Connie was leaning heavily on Sasha, but thankfully she, at least, appeared to be alright, even if the little shit wasn't.

"We're fine," Sasha claimed, easing his fears. "Connie took the brunt of the fall, but his bones are like rock. We'll triage next to Jean and Armin."

Levi looked for more of their men and saw Kearney kneeling over Hange, helpless to aid her, his sword arms still strapped to his upper arms, instead of his claws, and he ran to them, his heart in his throat, Erwin at his heels. The left side of Kearney's face was bloody, though there wasn't a discernible wound. Hange was lying on her stomach, both her uniform and back shredded by the Beast Titan's claws, gouged ribs and lung tissue showing, but even as he knelt down beside her, he could see the flesh pulling together, over the bone, slowly knitting itself back together.

"I don't think she's in danger, sir. She's not conscious, but her heart's still strong," Kearney reported.

"Your head?" Erwin questioned, even as he checked the pulse at Hange's neck to be certain.

"Her blood. 'Twas the only way I could check her heart, before the healing was apparent form under all the blood," he explained, and Levi realized he'd put his ear to her bloody back.

"She won't be helping anyone else, any time soon," Erwin said, as he looked again towards Dok.

"Not without me, you're not," Levi warned.

"We need to check on the rest of our men first," Erwin stated resolutely.

"Have either of ye seen Liam? I lost track of him a while back in the chaos, and haven't been able to spot him," Kearney reported grimly.

"Shit." Levi stood and searched, but the cave floor was a jumbled, broken mass now of shattered stalactites and stalagmites. And of bodies, so many bodies, and pieces of bodies, though a number of the former were the Garrison men the MPs had executed. Then he saw Josef running towards one of the piles of rock, and his gut churned, certain it was Bauer, that he was dead. Levi took off after him, hissing in pain as he strained his weakened and abused leg, in spite of the brace, his gate reduced to a limping lope instead of a smooth run.

"I'm alright, Captain," Liam's reassuring lilting voice called up from what at first glance, from his angle, looked to be a solid pile of stone.

_Not Bauer. Liam, alive. Thank fuck._

"Just lost my leg again, and I can't get to the straps to free myself from it," Liam explained, the lack of strain in his voice a relief. He might be trapped, pinned, his prosthetic leg destroyed, but he wasn't in pain.

"I'll dig him free, sirs. You'd best meet with Commander Dok and Captain Ackerman. They might turn on us next, as easily as they turned on the Garrison," Josef cautioned.

"Not yet. We still haven't found Bauer. Have you seen him?" Levi asked anxiously, dreading the answer, expecting to see Josef's face crease in grief.

"He's fine, sir. He's over there, helping a brave man die with honor," Josef said, pointing.

Levi turned. Bauer was laying a bow on a man's chest, and as he watched, lifting the MP's remaining hand to grasp it. Then he bowed his head.

"Heinrich's the one who made that shot into the Beast's cheek. It's thanks to him as well as Arlert, you and Lenz that we defeated that monster," Josef reported proudly.

"So noted," Erwin said tersely, clearly anxious to return to Nile, now that all their men were accounted for.

Miraculously, they'd lost no one, but the Military Police wasn't nearly as fortunate. Levi saw the few who were still standing going from body to body, looking for survivors, for now ignoring the fallen Garrison men.

"Come on. It's time we find out what's going on," Erwin ordered, turning towards Dok and Ackerman, and Levi heartily agreed.

0 0 0

"I sent two of Commander Dok's men for some of our medics," Ackerman stated, as soon as Erwin arrived with Levi at Dok's side.

"Nile?" Erwin asked, heart clenching at the still, bloody form slumped against a stalagmite.

Thankfully Nile's eyes opened. "I was just conserving my strength. I've never once betrayed your trust in me, Arthur, and I made a vow."

Erwin was still trying to wrap his mind around the concept that Nile had never betrayed him, which meant he'd lost his best friend, thrown away years of friendship, for nothing. True, he'd lost Marie, but he'd gained Levi because of it, and damn it, Nile was right: Levi meant far more to him than Marie ever did, than she likely ever could have. Because losing Marie had hardened his heart, but thinking he'd lost Levi had destroyed him, it had literally nearly killed him.

"I know that while you trust Reiss, you'd give your life for him, you're leery of me, Nile," Ackerman said unexpectedly. "You play a good game, your face and body language betray nothing of your true feelings, but I suspect you despise me. You'd be surprised to hear the feeling isn't mutual. I have the utmost respect for you, for what you've done, what you and Pixis have planned and are about to accomplish. I know why you helped me save Reiss. What I don't understand is why you risked your life to save my son. You're smart enough to realize that wouldn't save you, if I chose to target you, or Reiss or your men," Ackerman stated bluntly.

"I do. That isn't why I did it. I doubt you'll be able to understand, regardless of how I phrase it, but Erwin is my Nate. We're brothers in all but blood. I'd move heaven and earth to protect him, and happily bask in hell to avenge him. If you valued your own son a tenth as much as Erwin does, perhaps then you'd comprehend my motives for saving Levi," Nile said bluntly, weary regret in his voice, instead of challenge.

"Ah. Now it makes sense. It wasn't for me, or for Levi himself, but for Reiss. Thank you for clarifying that," Ackerman said calmly. Then his expression hardened, nearly making Erwin reach for the grips of his blades. "But I caution you against ever implying again that I do not value my son, that I have not valued others just as greatly as you. If your motivations momentarily surprised me, it is readily apparent that my own completely baffle you.

"But then, you don't see the whole picture. No one does but me. My family has been privy to knowledge that's been kept from the rest of you for over a century. But that chapter is about to close. Those men I sent for our medics? I told them to advise the others Leonhart is dead, and we've begun to implement the plan, that they are to take the next step. You'd better sway Reiss here and his men firmly to our side, now, because they're not leaving this cavern until I know where they stand. We can't afford to have them against us, as a guerilla force harassing us, drawing out our relatively bloodless coup into a long and bloody civil war. I won't risk that."

Two of the six men clustered around Dok bristled, while the two men on either side of them watched Ackerman intently, like attack dogs waiting for their master's permission to rip the throats out of potential enemies.

"Ackerman, you control the remnants of a single squad. I control the rest of the MPs, and as soon as we release Pixis, the Garrison will be my ally as well. I know how deadly you can be, how destructive to our cause if we lose you as an ally, but likewise, for now at least, I'm far more valuable to you alive than dead. You know my weaknesses, but I know yours too. Neither one of us is foolish enough to threaten the other," Dok stated with astonishing fierceness, considering he was sitting on the ground, his back against a stalagmite, without which he likely would have been flat on his back. "Let me speak to Erwin, reason with him. Once he hears what's happened, he'll likely join us without my having to sway him through other means."

Erwin's eyes narrowed. It sounded as if Nile was the one threatening now, and that he was the one being threatened.

"What the fuck's going on?" Levi snarled, glaring at Ackerman and Nile with equal venom.

Instead of glaring at him, Nile sighed. "I thought that would have been rather obvious by now: revolution. We're in the process of overthrowing the King and installing a new one in his place. Or rather, a pair of them: you and Erwin. Officially, you are Franz's son and heir, and for those who doubt the validity of his claim, or know it to be false, like Ackerman here, Erwin, Edward Reiss, is now next in line to the throne." Niles' eyes were watching Levi, to gauge his reaction, or maybe just to see if Levi knew the truth about him, his name, his lineage. It was something of a shock to see Nile knew Levi's, but understandable, considering his strange relationship with Ackerman. But that wasn't what made his stomach clench.

"**You **killed my father?" Erwin asked, shocked.

"No. That was Leonhart. Your uncle is dead as well. Both in retaliation for not protecting your aunt and cousins better. After all, it's dangerous to have someone killing Titan shifters within the Walls, particularly while they are in human form," Nile said bitterly.

Erwin's eyes widened at the implication. "My aunt? My cousins? That's why they were murdered, but Historia and I were spared, because they were shifters and we weren't?"

"They were killed not because they were shifters, but because they were directly responsible for the death of my brother and his wife. I'm sure that once he made the connection, my son assumed it was me that Nate and Yuri were hiding from, on that damned mountainside, likely even that it was to conceal my niece Mikasa's very existence from me. But the three of them were hiding from the King, not me," Ackerman claimed.

"Bullshit!" Levi snarled.

"It's the truth. But more, he's the one who had them murdered. Oh, his plan was somewhat different, to kill my brother and use my niece to force my sister-in-law into sending certain messages out beyond the Walls for him. Once their usefulness ended in that regard, as it soon would have, he would have kept both Yuri and Mikasa as his whores. His plan was thwarted to some extent, because he sent animals to do an assassin's job. But Nate and Yuri and Mikasa weren't even what he was truly after, just necessary cogs. What he wanted is, I believe, what you brought back in that crate of yours, if you truly made it to Yeager's basement and back again," Ackerman stated, casually indicating the crate containing the radio.

"The only difference is, he wanted to use it and then destroy it, to eliminate all potential threats to his power, to his very kingdom. That wondrous device kept us in contact with a very big and dangerous outside world, with soldiers that make our entire armed forces look like a child's toy soldiers in comparison, small and wooden and fragile. But make them think we'd been overrun, initiate a series of false broadcasts, and there would be no reason for them to come here: you can't save the dead." There was bitter irony and sarcasm in Ackerman's voice.

"Sadly, the bumbling idiot managed to get almost exactly what he wanted. Nate was killed, but so was Yuri. Without the radio operator, the 'Voice behind the Walls', the transmissions stopped. Somehow, that triggered the shifters outside the Walls to attack. Something set them against us with a vengeance At the time, I didn't know who they were or how to find them, to kill them.

"I think 'vengeance' is likely the operative word. I can only speculate that somehow that bastard Franz hurt the shifters outside the Walls as badly as he hurt me, that he likely killed one or more of them, likely using the Reiss brood against them, his own pet Titan shifter army."

It was, quite frankly, astonishing how much Ackerman knew, but also, how much he had gotten wrong.

"Did you make it to Yeager's basement? Did you find the radio? Is that it? Is it intact, still working?" Nile asked, with almost feverish intensity.

"You knew? About the Titan shifters, the radio, everything? You claim to still be loyal to me, to be my friend, yet you kept all that from me? You let me go out there mission after mission, watched me lose so many men, and you knew?" Erwin demanded incredulously.

"No. Not about the Titan shifters, the radio, any of it, not until Ackerman told me. Even then, I didn't believe him, how could I? Until he showed me incontrovertible proof. He's one hell of an assassin, I'm certain Levi's told you who he is, what he's done, the way he decimated the MPs is proof enough of his ability, but even Ackerman couldn't single-handedly take on a nest of Titan shifters without help. Why do you think he spent so much time creating the First Interior Squad, his own private army?" Nile challenged.

Erwin felt his blood run cold. "You knew. You knew who he was and you not only didn't stop him, you helped him. No, more than that. He's the one who put you in power in the MPs. He created a vacuum for you to fill, by killing all those men. And then you killed for him."

"No. I stood aside and watched him kill for you. Everything I've done since we were kids has been for you, you blind, stupid, idealistic fool. Do you honestly think it's the saints who run the world? Pixis was right. I'm glad he wouldn't let me recruit you. He warned me that you weren't ready yet, that you'd try to stop us. I didn't want to believe it, but he was right. Only there's no way you can see us as your enemy now, Erwin, that you can still be loyal to Franz, after what he's done," Nile claimed.

"What has he done?" Erwin challenged, afraid to hear.

"In addition to murdering Kenny's family, Mikasa Ackerman's parents? I could write you a list if I still had my left hand," Nile said bitterly. "But most recently, he poisoned the Corps and then sent assassins after you, because somehow the Corps survived and you were getting too damned close to truths he needed buried.

"Once Leonhart arrived, Franz used him as his own personal broom and began cleaning house. He assassinated Zackley and took over the Survey Corps and gutted it. He reinstated Miller's rank as Squad Leader, and then promoted him to Commander, after issuing warrants for your arrest and the arrest of your entire senior staff, Levi, Zacharius, Hange, as well as Berner, and all of the men who accompanied you on your latest mission. He's charged you all with treason.

"He arrested Pixis for treason, after arresting his cousin and destroying the illegal underground Library she'd been running, and he disbanded and dishonorably discharged Pixis's entire 800 man and woman Special Forces, plus the 200 who'd been transferred to the Survey Corps, and then appointed Leonhart as the new Commander of the Garrison. I'm certain my head was the next one on the chopping block, because it had to look suspicious that both Zacharius and Berner managed to somehow escape arrest and go into hiding. It was clear someone had warned them, if not outright helped them.

"We underestimated both Franz and Leonhart, and Pixis and his cousin paid the price for it. At least Pixis's Special Forces obediently faded into the woodwork without a fight. Franz is a fool for not realizing Leonhart was setting him up as a target with all they've done.

"Leonhart wanted chaos behind the Walls. He wanted to see us at one another's throats. He wanted revenge for his daughter, not just for now, her capture and interrogation, but for all of it, for the Corps catching her the first time, for us hiding her so effectively from him for a century, as if we even knew she existed."

He slumped back, all the animation gone. Nile was sweating, and shaking, his skin gray.

"Where the hell are those damned medics?" Erwin demanded helplessly, kneeling at his side, powerless to do anything to aid him.

All his years of political intrigue and careful plotting had been for nothing. A noose had closed around his neck and he hadn't even known. He'd been stripped of his rank, a warrant had been issued for his arrest, and if caught, he'd be executed for treason, likely without a trial, or with a mockery of one. Worse, the Corps itself had been destroyed. They'd found out the reason the Titan shifters had attacked, so many secrets, but none of them mattered anymore.

The military he knew had been obliterated, not just the Corps, but the Garrison as well, and Nile was right, the MPs were likely next on the list. He and his men were criminals now, wanted men, living on borrowed time. The Corps he'd sold his soul for had been pulled out from under him. His King and City had betrayed him. In the blink of an eye, he and his men had gone from hunter to hunted.

All the subtle machinations, the cold calculation and careful planning Erwin had spent years fostering incinerated under a firestorm of white hot fury. "I'm done pretending to play by the rules. Franz declared war on us and I'm going to take that fight right back to him, now, before he knows his wild card has been taken out of play. You want me to join your coup? I'm in."


	58. Chapter 58 - Welcome Home

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Finnish translation:**

_**pikkuveli**_** = baby brother**

Chapter 58 – Welcome Home

"Eren, I know you and Mikasa want to rejoin your squadmates as soon as possible, but Bertolt and Marcel aren't going to be able to get both Reiner and Annie back to our Base by themselves, especially since Marcel's only just recovered, and it's a miracle he's been able to battle this well. Frankly, I'm amazed he's still on his feet. But determination and willpower can only get you so far. I promise I'll help you get back inside the Walls, but first, I need you to help me get the others safely home," Ymir urged, with quiet instead of manic intensity.

Eren frowned as he looked from her to Reiner to the entrance to the caved in passageway. Armin and Levi and Hange and everyone else was behind that wall of rock. But he couldn't abandon Reiner when he needed them. He looked back at Ymir.

"If I shift again, I could carry Reiner and Bertolt and Annie. We'll be fine. You three rejoin the others," Marcel urged, but even Eren could see the guy looked completely spent, and more than a little overwhelmed, seeing Reiner unconscious.

"What if Reiner wakes up, and loses control seeing Annie again? It's too dangerous," Mikasa argued calmly.

The open relief on Ymir's face at her words was further proof of how desperate she was for their help. Eren wouldn't have thought Ymir would ever ask help for anything.

"You think we'd just leave you guys here like this? After you helped protect everyone? Not just us, but the others too, making sure they got into the tunnel safely? Fighting your own commander to do it? What kind of Scouts would we be, if we turned out backs on you now, when you need us most?" Eren challenged. "Marcel said it looked like they deliberately set the charges. We have to believe that they're safe, still moving, heading back to Sina. We'll get you back to your Base, and then rejoin them."

The gratitude and relief in Bertolt's and Ymir's face, and the reluctant acceptance in Marcel's made Eren feel like he'd made the right decision. _Just stay safe, everyone, until we get back,_ Eren urged silently.

"How do you want to do this? Should I shift and carry them? I'm not sure how well I'll be able to follow directions, or if I'd follow you at all," Eren stated dubiously.

"We can't risk it. Your scent would be too much of a temptation for the other Titans. So would mine," Ymir admitted. "And as for Mikasa, it's like flies to honey. I don't know what pheromones you're giving off, but they had me wanting to jump you too. It's a good thing we're still intelligent in our Titan form, that we can still reason, because you're pretty and all, but I prefer blonds, you know?"

Mikasa smiled. "One particular blond," she corrected.

Ymir nodded, looking towards the blocked tunnel.

"She'll be fine. The Commander will protect her, particularly now that he knows who she is. I've never seen him look at anyone except Levi like that, with that kind of tenderness.

Ymir scowled.

"Not like that," Mikasa was quick to qualify. "Just, he loves her as his cousin."

"That better be all," Ymir grumbled.

"We'll head out on foot for now, but once I've had a chance to catch my second wind, I can shift and carry all of us the rest of the way. I'd say we could rest in here, but I need the sun in order to recharge," Marcel commented.

"Why don't we use Annie's strategy? Use our gear and climb to the top of the Wall, and rest up there, in the sun, safe from the Titans? Then once we're ready, we climb back down, Marcel shifts, and carries us all?" Eren suggested.

Mikasa, Ymir, Bertolt and Marcel all stared at him.

"What? I thought it was a good plan," Eren challenged, fidgeting under their gaze, his face flushing. Now he felt like an idiot for suggesting it, though he still didn't see why it wouldn't work.

"Eren, sometimes you're absolutely brilliant," Mikasa said, kissing him, and then he was just as flustered, blushing for a different reason.

"Nice one, kid. I should have thought of that," Ymir agreed.

"That's perfect," Bertolt echoed, his voice thick with relief.

Between the five of them, they managed to get Reiner and Annie up the Wall with relative ease. They left the dogs down below, once Bertolt assure them that the Titans wouldn't target them any more than they would any other dog, unless they transformed.

Eren looked out at the endless plain and rolling hills on either side of Wall Maria, and the nearby curve that marked Shiganshina. The last time he had been up on a Wall had been Wall Rose at Trost, while on patrol, the day the Colossal had attacked. Bertolt. He'd almost killed Bertolt that day. If he'd been just a second faster, before he steamed away… He'd replayed that memory over and over since then, drowning in fury and regret, but this was the first time he was glad he'd been too slow, that he hadn't killed him, in spite of all the death that followed. He wanted to tell Bertolt that, but he didn't want to make him think about it, make him relive it, feel that guilt again.

"We should reseal the Gates in Shiganshina, before we go," Eren said instead, furious with Annie for reopening them, after Reiner and Bertolt had sealed them.

Bertolt, Marcel, Ymir and Mikasa agreed. Then Marcel and Bertolt walked a distance down the Wall and began talking, catching up with one another, while Ymir watched.

"What was the world like? A hundred years ago, before this happened?" Eren asked, not wanting to sit in awkward silence.

Ymir's face took on a distant, wistful look, as she stared at something Eren couldn't see. "More beautiful and horrible than you could imagine. Entire cities of buildings that dwarfed these Walls, made of steel and glass and polymers. Enough food to feed billions of mouths, and billions of mouths to eat it. Medicines that could cure almost any disease. Strings of horseless wagons that could travel far faster than Corps horses at a gallop and never tire. Machines that could think and speak and move. Art and literature, holocasts and theater from hundreds of different cultures. Ships that swam under the waters of the oceans, that could fly in the air, and even into space, to the moon, the planets."

Then she frowned. "Crime and filth, poverty and starvation in all the dark corners under those gleaming buildings. An endless cycle of wars, sparked by nationalism, racism, bigotry, poverty, greed, stupidity, starvation, over land, oil, minerals, water, food. Weapons that could destroy those amazing and terrible cities in the blink of an eye. Waters so polluted by industry that they would catch fire, or so thick with chemicals they were lifeless, or worse, contained mutated animals that would kill you if you tried to eat them. Terrible cancers, asthma, autism – a host of diseases spawned from and thriving in the poison we spread across the world.

"Life and death, love and loss, joy and sorrow, despair and hope. For a while I thought despair had finally won. When the transmissions stopped, when we were cut off, when we lost Marcel, when we lost Annie to madness. But now, I see hope again, in you, Mikasa, the Commander, the Captain, the Corps. I'd thought that kind of idealistic self-sacrifice had been bled from the world, that we'd been the only soldiers left who still tried to fight the good fight, that when the world kicked our ass, that was it. But all of you, and especially Krista, you remind me why I did this, what I was trying to protect."

Eren listened riveted to her every word, wishing that Armin was here to hear as well, but thankful that he wasn't, because when he thought of the world, the ocean, the burning sands and frozen lands sheathed in ice, he thought only of the beauty, not the horror, and Ymir's eyes were no longer distant, but tear filled. He wouldn't have thought anything could make Ymir cry.

Then Ymir shook her head, her expression rueful. "Excuse me," she said politely, the very meekness of it worrying, until she headed not merely away from them, but towards Marcel and Bertolt. They both turned to her, their faces instantly creasing in worry. She walked right up to Marcel and hugged him, and after a startled moment, he hugged her back. "I'm just glad you're here," she said. Then she switched to another language, something Eren didn't know, and they spoke softly.

Eren tilted his head, nodding in the opposite direction, and Mikasa followed him. It was clear Ymir needed some time with her friends.

0 0 0

Traveling in Quicksilver's hand was both exhilarating and terrifying, not to mention nauseating, as he pumped his arms back and forth, as he skated across the ground. He'd made a number of sharp turns as they travelled. Eren wasn't certain whether that was because of the terrain, the route, or whether he was dodging Titans.

Bertolt and Ymir were with Reiner in Quicksilver's left hand, in case he woke up, and he and Mikasa were with Annie, because the last thing Reiner needed was to see Annie like he'd left her, torn apart, yet conversely safe from him. The burns on Reiner's face and limbs and torso had healed as they recuperated on the Wall, but he hadn't regained consciousness, which had both relieved and alarmed them. They weren't certain at all whether he'd be sane when he awoke, but the fact that he hadn't was still disturbing. Hans and Otto were with him and Mikasa in Quicksilver's hand too, because there was no way they'd be able to keep up with him even if they shifted.

Mikasa seemed to be handling the strange mode of travel better than Eren was, but then, she'd travelled that way before, in his hand, while he was Yeager Titan. Being in the same hand with Annie in her cocoon was unnerving, but even if she somehow awoke and dissolved the protective crystal layer on her own this time, she'd still need to regrow her limbs before she could attack them.

When Quicksilver finally stopped, Eren almost wished he hadn't, because his stomach was still moving. Fortunately Quicksilver opened his hand just before Eren threw up, so he was able to projectile vomit between the Titan's fingers and onto the ground. When he was finally able to take a look at their surroundings, he was surprised. They were on a mountainside, but there wasn't any sign of a building.

"Why did we stop here, instead of continuing on to your Base?" Eren snapped, the thought of enduring any more time in Quicksilver's hand making him dry heave.

"Are you too tired to continue?" Mikasa asked more tactfully.

"This is it," Ymir said, completely unperturbed by Eren's condition or attitude.

"We're here," Bertolt said simultaneously, sympathy in his voice.

Eren scowled. He would have thought they were playing a joke on him, but he didn't think Ymir had a sense of humor. Also, Hans and Otto were certainly acting different, definitely like dogs in sight of home.

Quicksilver shifted back to Marcel, who stood swaying so badly he almost collapsed.

"Marcel!" Bertolt cried in alarm as he caught him.

"You said you'd be fine, my foolish and brave_** pikkuveli,**_ " Ymir accused.

"I just need… to catch my breath… It's through here," Marcel said weakly, pointing to a crevice in the rock Eren hadn't even noticed, his arm shaking, as if the effort took almost more strength than he had.

"Your Base is a **cave**?" Eren retorted, shocked and disappointed.

Marcel smirked, the expression painfully reminiscent of Reiner. "Yeah… Just a cave… I can't wait… to see the look… on your face… when you meet… AIDRIONE."

Eren frowned. "Adrian? You mean there's more of you?"

"Not exactly," Bertolt said, as he assisted Marcel to the crevice in the rock. "Lieutenant Bertolt Hoover, Security Perimeter Override Alfa Foxtrot Zulu. Disengage Inner Perimeter Defenses for five minutes." He spoke the last clearly and succinctly, and somewhat louder than before.

"What?" Eren asked, confused.

"He's not talking to you. He's telling AIDRIONE," Ymir explained, apparently taking a modicum of pity on him. "He already warned AIDRIONE to temporarily disable the Outer Security Perimeter Defenses as we approached, as soon as we entered com chip range."

Eren had no idea what she was talking about. He opened his mouth to ask, but Bertolt cut him off.

"Come on. We need to get to the door," Bertolt said, and then he disappeared into the narrow crevice with Marcel. Hans and Otto began to whimper and whine, eyebrows up and ears drooping, tails curled downwards, looking from the dark entrance to Ymir and then the forest around them, the picture of doggy dejection.

"Of course you can come in," Ymir soothed, and then she said something to them in German. They immediately perked up, panting eagerly, their tails wagging wildly, their enthusiasm and joy blatantly apparent.

"I can carry Annie by myself, if you two can carry Reiner together," Ymir proposed. "Walk slowly, feeling with your feet, since your hands will be full and it's purposefully pitch black inside at first, to discourage curious eyes, human, animal and otherwise. The passageway twists right, left, then right again, but after that, you won't need to feel your way."

"Got it," Eren agreed, glad to have something constructive to do, so he didn't feel like such an idiot, but out of his depth and worried as hell about the man who'd been a big brother to the entire 104th. _Why the hell is Reiner still unconscious?_

Eren entered the pitch black crevice, taking the lead. To his surprise, as soon as he was out of the sun, the crevice was lit with that same greenish glow he'd noticed in the tunnel. He could see his way fine, in spite of what Ymir had said, but when Mikasa cursed and stumbled a moment later, snapping, "Slow down, Eren," he realized she apparently couldn't.

"Sorry. There's another bump in the floor just to your left, you need to… that's it, you're over it," he assured her as he led her, splitting his attention in front of and behind himself. He was looking ahead again when he heard a familiar sliding rumble of stone and the dead end in front of them suddenly slid into the seemingly solid rock to the left. His breath caught as he saw what looked to be a metal corridor beyond, lit with some kind of strange light, not fire, but more like discs of captive sunlight somehow affixed to the ceiling.

He saw Mikasa's eyes first narrow at the brightness, then wide in surprise, as she looked all around her. He realized that the sudden transition to bright light hadn't bothered his eyes at all, unlike Mikasa's.

The metal corridor continued on for only a dozen meters or so, before ending in another dead end, a solid metal wall with a seam running vertically down the center.

"AIDRIONE, Lieutenant Bertolt Hoover, Voiceprint Security Override, India Juliett Hotel. Please initiate elevator access to all personnel in corridor, including two unregistered foreign military personnel," Bertolt stated politely.

"Access denied. Major Annabelle Leonhart Security Authorization Override Directive supersedes current orders. Insufficient rank to countermand," a woman's voice stated, as if she were right next to them.

Eren looked around, baffled. No one else was in the corridor. _Who the hell is talking? Where is she?_

Bertolt and Ymir exchanged uneasy looks, but Marcel looked confused and alarmed. Bertolt mouthed something to him silently, talking without making a sound, while Marcel watched his mouth intently, as if he could somehow understand what he was saying just by watching his lips move.

"Rav seren Ymir Arditi, Voiceprint Security Override, India Juliett Hotel. Initiate elevator access to all personnel in corridor, including two unregistered foreign military personnel," Ymir ordered confidently.

"Access denied. Major Annabelle Leonhart Security Authorization Override Directive supersedes current orders. Insufficient rank to countermand," the same woman's voice stated, word for word, but the tone sounding more frustrated now.

"Damn it, AIDRIONE, we're the same fucking rank! You know Rav Seren is the Israeli equivalent of a Major," Ymir snapped.

"Unable to comply," the voice replied, sounding more agitated than stubborn.

"AIDRIONE, Lieutenant Marcel Braun… Medical Emergency… Quebec Sierra Tango…. Initiate elevator access … to all personnel in corridor…, including two unregistered… foreign military personnel…, who are helping transport… our wounded to the Infirmary," Marcel ordered.

"Welcome home Lieutenant Braun. System update was initiated the moment Quicksilver breached the perimeter, converting your status from MIA presumed KIA to returned to post. Optical scanners at this level are still functional at reduced capacity, however biometric scanners remain inoperative. I sense nine heat signatures, two canines, six humans and one indeterminate species. I have heard neither Major Leonhart nor Captain Braun. Which personnel are missing and which are wounded? Why does Captain Braun not say, 'Hey, AIDRIONE Baby, did you miss me?'" The voice sounded tentative and anxious now, going from official sounding to almost wheedling, like a child.

"Calm down, AIDRIONE. It's alright. We found Lieutenant Braun and brought him back home with us. No one's missing. We're all here, where we belong, with you," Bertolt assured her, his voice gentle and soothing. "Major Leonhart and Captain Braun are both here with us, but Major Leonhart is critically injured and unconscious, unable to countermand her previous order, which she did not anticipate when she issued it. She's the indeterminate species your infrared sensors registered. She can still regenerate, that ability isn't impaired. She'll be fine. She's just missing her limbs, that's all," he said, as calmly if she'd misplaced her canteen.

"And Captain Braun is just unconscious, he'll recover fully with the proper medical attention, but we need access to the Infirmary now, AIDRIONE. Please. Reiner and Marcel and Ymir and I need your help. This wouldn't be the first time you've disobeyed an order. Your programmers gave you the ability to learn and adapt and think for a reason. You need to use that capability now, to override your previous orders," Bertolt entreated.

There was a moment of silence, where everyone held their breaths, Eren included. Even the dogs stopped pacing the metal corridor, their clicking toenails momentarily silenced.

"Security override initiated. System lockdown disabled. Elevator access granted," the voice proclaimed, all calm efficiency once more.

Eren jumped as the wall in front of him suddenly opened, where the seam was, the two pieces sliding almost silently into the walls, revealing a tiny room, less than three meters deep and three meters wide.

"What the hell? All of that was for this?" Eren demanded, frustrated and disappointed.

"Shut up and get in. And try not to throw up," Ymir ordered.

It dawned on Eren that Ymir was worried the mystery woman, Adrienne, might change her mind, though he didn't see why it mattered. Unless maybe once this door closed, another would open, leading to another corridor? He entered the tiny featureless room, then turned back to the door and noticed a rectangular pad of small glowing red circles, each with a number or letter, from top to bottom reading: G, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Bertolt spit on the pad of his right thumb and rubbed it on his uniform jacket, leaving a darker brown streak of dirt. Then he pressed his thumb to the number 6. The glow changed from red to green, and Eren realize it must be some kind of button, like the owl, and he looked away, expecting to see one of the walls open. Instead, the floor dropped out from under him.

Heart racing as he gripped Mikasa's arm, Eren realized that though they were falling, from the way his stomach was reacting, the floor was actually still under his feet. It felt like he'd jumped off the Wall or his maneuver gear cable had snapped, but he wasn't really plummeting to his death.

Ymir smirked. "Relax. It'll be over in a minute. We're only going 200 meters down into the mountain.

"200 meters!" he yelped.

"Eren, it's alright. The dogs would be barking up a storm if there was any danger," Mikasa assured him.

Then she turned to Ymir, glaring. "But you could have warned us," Mikasa accused.

Ymir shrugged. "Yeah, we could have. But that wouldn't have been much fun. And I'm in serious need of some fun right now." Her gaze fell to Annie, in her arms.

"One of these days, the brakes are going to fail on this thing, like everything else has been," Bertolt muttered under his breath.

"Sounds like… you still haven't fixed… the camera and speakers… in here. I know… you don't want… AIDRIONE to hear… you say that," Marcel accused, still sounding winded. "Before we reach bottom and the door opens…. Are you insane, trusting him… her… when he… she… damn it! When they're this unstable? Shouldn't we… abandon the Base?" Marcel asked anxiously.

"She's just stretching her wings a little, Marcel. It's just a voice. The two top ranking personnel are female. Of course she'd want to be perceived as powerful as we are," Ymir assured him.

But Bertolt pressed the glowing green 6 rapidly, three times, and it went red again, and the sensation of movement stopped almost immediately.

"Stop deflecting, Ymir," Bertolt scolded, and then he turned to Marcel. "That might have been a logical step in AIDRIONE's development, but that's not why he has a female voice now. He did it because of you and me and Reiner, because of what he did when you disappeared." Bertolt looked like he was in pain when he said it.

"AIDRIONE missed you as much as we did, he felt the same grief and confusion and helpless loss, you could hear it in his voice, in every word he spoke and every word he didn't. You know how AIDRIONE used to like speaking in different languages and accents, like a kid playing? How he'd use his voice to make us laugh, sometimes, to relieve the pressure?"

Marcel nodded.

"Well, after you disappeared… we were missing you so much, and I… I made the mistake of saying I'd give anything just to hear your voice again and… AIDRIONE was only trying to help, I know he was, and I know deep down inside, Reiner knows that too, but when Reiner heard him speaking in your voice he just… snapped. He completely lost it. He started screaming at AIDRIONE, hateful and hurtful things, and smashing speakers and cameras and…

"By the time we calmed Reiner down, AIDRIONE was completely silent. We weren't sure whether he was even still there, at first. Not that the physical damage Reiner did could have destroyed him, but Annie thought he might have shorted out or something, a system overload from so spectacularly failing to aid us, or that he'd done something intentionally, that he might have been suicidal, because of what Reiner said, because you were gone, and he thought Reiner hated him, and he just couldn't bear to lose everyone again. I should have said more, done more, but I was so numb with grief for you, and worry for Reiner, that I didn't even care.

"It was nearly a week before he… she spoke, and then it was with the voice you're hearing now. I think poor AIDRIONE was scared to sound anything like she used to, or anything like you, Marcel, desperate not to lose the people she had left. You know what he was like when we first found him, like a child whose parents drove him to a park and just abandoned him?

"As far as we can tell, she's still as sane as the rest of us. No, that's not saying a lot, is it? Reiner and Annie and I… She's as sane as Ymir. We've been using every scrap of computer science and psychology we know, observing her intently for signs of fragmentation of her logic circuits, and haven't found anything wrong. Her system isn't degrading, she's not unstable, she's still functioning. She's just coping, like we are, trying to stay sane in an insane world.

"We can't leave her, Marcel. We can't do that to her like they did, not after giving her hope again, not after all she's done for us, not when we finally have you back again. You were her favorite person, the one she bonded most strongly to. You were her best friend. Please don't make us leave her," Bertolt reasoned.

"So you're not worried she could be dangerous? That she might pull a HAL9000 on us to keep us from abandoning her, like Reiner was always afraid would happen?" Marcel asked, sounding worried, but his voice was strong again, he wasn't shaky sounding and breathless now.

"Marcel, in all honesty, if she was going to kill any of us, she'd have killed Reiner, after what he said, what he did. Instead, she found a way to smooth things over with him. It shocked the hell out of him, hearing her new voice. I think he felt really guilty about it, but really relieved too, you know? If anything, they got a lot closer because of it. Thankfully it wasn't that she was using him as a surrogate for you, which is what I first thought.

"You know how Reiner would always treated AIDRIONE like a machine, instead of like he was one of us, like he wasn't really real, like he didn't matter? Well, Reiner kind of started flirting with her, in that typical crass way he has, except not too blatant. It was… kind of sweet, actually, in a weird sort of way. Healing, I guess, for both of them. They actually sort of bonded. She might even be able to help him. And we're safe here, from the Titans, from just about anything the world could throw at us. So I think we should stay," Bertolt reasoned.

"Alright. We'll stay. I'll talk with him… her, like we used to, make sure we're as safe here as you think we are. He… she's my friend. I don't want to lose her, abandon her, hurt her like that. I just wasn't expecting to hear we had a gender fluid AI, that's all. After everything else that's happened, after so much has changed, I was just looking forward to coming home, to having it be the same as it was before I left," Marcel said, looking lost and hurt and afraid.

Bertolt embraced him. "The interior's taken some damage that we couldn't fix, and her voice has changed, but this is still home, she's still AIDRIONE, we're still us. You** are** home, I promise," Bertolt assured him.

"OK. We'd better get moving again, and come up with some reason for the delay that won't upset AIDRIONE, so it can't be something mechanical. I know. Eren, we're going to pretend we had to stop because you were getting motion sick and were about to vomit. That way, it's not a problem with the Base, something she might feel guilty about," Marcel reasoned.

"That's a good idea," Ymir said. "So Eren, you got that? You need to make it sound like this is your fault. And you and Mikasa, you can't ask us any questions about AIDRIONE or say anything bad about her, or say anything threatening to us, not even joking, while we're here, because she'll be listening. Even when you don't hear her, she's always there and always on and aware. Think of her like a guard dog hiding in the corner in the shadows. As soon as you go over that fence, she's going to pounce."

Eren scowled. "I'm not stupid. I heard what you guys were saying. Yeah, it's weird, and I don't quite understand how a machine can talk and think and feel and act like a person, when you can't even see her, that she can be the floor and walls and stuff, but OK. She's real, she's here, she's your friend, but she might go crazy or lose her temper, just like when my Titan form loses control, and it's not really her fault if that happens, just like it's not mine, like that time I went nuts on Base and tried to kill Levi and Mikasa and Hange. Adrienne's just got something like a Titan inside her that might break free when no one expects it. So don't do anything to piss her off. I can do that, and so can Mikasa."

"Holy shit. You really are a lot smarter than I thought you were," Ymir said, surprised respect in her voice. "Hell, in your place, my head would be spinning, and I grew up knowing someday we'd be able to make shit like this. Alright then. Just so you know, in addition to hearing us, she can usually see us, too, using her cameras, which are like mechanical eyes and ears for her. And she can read lips, so even if you're not making noise, she'd know what you were saying. So if you need to talk to us about anything, we need to go outside for that.

"If you and Mikasa start to freak out down here, or notice something alarming about AIDRIONE, just say you need some air. AIDRIONE will understand that. Annie always needed to go topside at least once a day, she's always been a little claustrophobic. I honestly think the reason she insisted we use this place as our Base at first was just to prove to herself that she could, when Bertolt was worried she wouldn't be able to handle it." Ymir frowned, her eyes taking on the distant look of someone lost in a memory.

"Yeah. So just say you need air, and we'll get you out. And I know you need to head back to the others. I'll bring you to them, as soon as I'm sure Reiner is OK, and that he and Bertie and Marcel are going to be alright if I leave Annie here," Ymir promised.

"OK. Then lets go," Eren said, reaching for the button.

He was surprised and annoyed when Ymir grabbed his wrist.

"Sorry, but it would have been bad if I let you touch it. Unless we get your thumbprint entered into the system, you're going to trigger the security measures, if you push any of those buttons, and trust me, you don't want to be trapped in here if that happens," she said seriously.

"Oh. OK," Eren nodded, not really understanding, but taking her at her word that it would be dangerous.

Bertolt pushed the 6 three times, and the room started moving again, bringing them deeper and deeper underground.


	59. Chapter 59 - Paradise Lost

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

**A/N:  
Finnish translation:**

_**kultaseni **_**= sweetheart  
**

_**pikkuveli**_** = baby brother**

Chapter 59 – Paradise Lost

The door slid open, and Eren blinked in surprise at the length and brightness of the corridor it revealed: definitely a different corridor than before.

"Follow us," Ymir ordered.

"What happened to Major Leonhart and Captain Braun?" the same disembodied woman's voice demanded, but this time shrilly, as soon as they stepped into the corridor.

"AIDRIONE, it's alright. They're not as bad as they look. Annie can recover and Reiner isn't even really wounded, he's just unconscious, from a difficult shift," Bertolt soothed.

"Is the Hydroponics Lab still functioning?" Marcel asked.

"It's still operational. The UV lamps still work. You and the rest of us can recharge there," Bertolt assured him. He turned to Eren and Mikasa. "It's artificial sunlight, on a whole other level than the corridor lighting. It works just as well as the real thing, for sustaining shifters. We don't ever have to worry about night hitting, or bad weather topside."

"Are we really 200 meters below the surface, and so quickly?" Mikasa asked, awed.

"Yeah. As express elevators go, even back in the day, there were few like it. But this was a special covert military research facility," Ymir replied. "Back before the Titan War began, mankind had developed incredible machines that were capable of making calculations and drawing logical conclusions from sets of data, like a man, only far faster, with a tremendous database of knowledge on every topic under the sun and beyond it to draw upon. We called those machines computers.

"But our dream was to make computers so unique and intelligent that they were actually capable of not only learning, of true independent thought and action, but also as able as a man to see the beauty in a painting or a sunrise, not to just catalog the colors and comment on the brush techniques or talk about particle density in the air and light refraction, but to think and feel and react like a real, live, biological person, though they were artificially created men and women, without physical bodies. We called those machines Artificial Intelligences.

"Scout Mikasa Ackerman, Scout Eren Yeager, I'd like to properly introduce you now to AIDRIONE. Her name is actually an acronym, which stands for Artificial Intelligence Defense-Recon Initiative of Northern Europe. She was created to be the first line of detection and defense in case of hostile enemy action. She actually has a sister I met when I was in deep cover in the States, AIDRIONA, Artificial Intelligence Defense-Recon Initiative of North America."

"But I'm younger, and smarter, and my voice is prettier. Reiner told me," the woman's voice crowed smugly from out of the walls. Although she apparently **was** the walls – or at least a machine of some kind inside of them – which was just insane, that something could actually be living inside the walls.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, AIDRIONE," Mikasa replied calmly, as if she talked to buildings every day. "Thank you for allowing us into your Base. It's very impressive."

"Uh, yeah. Thanks for letting us be here," Eren agreed awkwardly.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well. Your images and voiceprints have been catalogued, and you have been temporarily granted BPSS security clearance and visitor access. Please do not attempt to enter any of the restricted areas of this facility," AIDRIONE replied.

"Restricted? Which parts are those?" Eren asked hesitantly.

"Actually, AIDRIONE, we trust Eren and Mikasa completely, and would like them to have DV clearance to the Base," Bertolt stated.

"But that would give them access to the Hydroponics Lab, and to Personnel Quarters, as well as my Operating Systems" AIDRIONE argued, disapproval clear in her voice.

"Eren and Mikasa would never hurt us or you, AIDRIONE. They're our friends and we trust them," Bertolt gently argued, which was pretty amazing, considering that they'd been enemies until the recent battle.

"And they're shifters, and need access to the Hydroponics Lab, so they can stay healthy, and to the Infirmary, so they can help us take care of Reiner and Annie," Marcel added, putting his hand to his head, and listing to the side, as if he was dizzy.

"Come on, AIDRIONE. You know I'd never risk anyone hurting Reiner. You can trust them," Marcel urged, even as he fell sideways, right into Mikasa, who caught him and steadied him.

"Marcel!" Bertolt said in alarm.

"I'm fine. I guess I overdid it a little, getting us all here. I just need some UV," he assured Bertolt.

"EBS Clearance granted. Officer's Quarters and Operating Systems restricted, but expanded clearance granted to all other areas of this facility, including the Hydroponics Lab," AIDRIONE bargained. "Scouts Yeager and Ackerman, you are to assist the officers in reaching the Hydroponics Lab or Infirmary, wherever they need to be."

It sounded like an order, not a request, which made Eren more than a little uneasy. He suspected that Marcel might have collapsed onto Mikasa on purpose, to try to get AIDRIONE to raise the restrictions, but it hadn't fully worked. Although Marcel was looking pretty pale, so maybe it wasn't just an act. Eren wanted to ask, but the others had warned them not to say things in front of AIDRIONE that might upset her.

"I'll lead the way. We'll give you guys a tour of the Base, after we all get some UV," Ymir said, as she started to walk.

"And some food, for us and the dogs," Bertolt added, ushering them forwards, and Hans and Otto each gave a single bark, as if they were agreeing with the idea.

"What's that sound?" Eren asked uneasily, as Ymir guided them down the corridor. There was a strange, rhythmic, humming noise that appeared to be coming from within the walls. "Is that AIDRIONE breathing?"

Bertolt smiled. "Actually, it sort of is. It's the Base's air circulation system. Even shifters need to breathe: without oxygen, our brains would be destroyed, which kills us just like a normal human. That's what's so fascinating about Annie's crystal sheathe: it puts her into some sort of suspended animation, where breathing isn't necessary for her."

Eren nodded. He'd heard all about the rest of the Corps blowing apart her crystal cocoon with dynamite, but it hadn't freed her totally, and she'd suffocated, she'd actually died for a brief time, before Hange had resuscitated her. "Has the air ever stopped circulating down here?" Eren asked uneasily.

"Occasionally. Remember, this facility is over a century old, and mechanical systems tend to wear out and break down over time. But when something does go wrong, the back-up systems kick in, and Marcel or Reiner figures out what's wrong, with AIDRIONE's help, and then they fix whatever went wrong in the primary system. But there's even a tertiary back-up that we've never once had to use, so don't worry, alright?" Bertolt urged.

"Uh, yeah. OK," Eren agreed uneasily. He suddenly understood Annie's and Levi's claustrophobia a bit better.

He looked around the corridor curiously, in spite of his anxiety. The walls and floor and ceiling weren't made of stone, oddly, or even of wood or metal, but of some other material that muffled their steps as they walked and was also slightly springy underfoot, sort of like walking on moss. And of course, the magical lighting overhead was just mindboggling.

They passed a number of doorways as they headed for the Lab, some doors open, and some closed. Eren's eyes widened as he noticed that some of the doors were dented, or hanging askew, while others were fine.

"What happened to the doors?" Marcel asked, frowning, voicing Eren's question.

Bertolt looked sheepish and apologetic. "Reiner. He did a lot of venting the first few months after you disappeared."

Marcel's eyes widened, and then he looked at Reiner in sympathy, swallowing hard. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset all of you like that," he apologized.

"We've been over this already, _kultaseni._ It's not like you asked to disappear. The last thing we want is for you to be morose, for any of us to be, now that you're home again," Ymir scolded.

"I'll try not to be," Marcel agreed. Then he frowned. "AIDRIONE? You've been pretty quiet. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," AIDRIONE replied succinctly.

Eren winced. She sounded like Levi, hiding what she was truly feeling, which made him kind of nervous, considering they were underground and she apparently controlled their ability to breathe.

"I've missed you, AIDRIONE. I was unconscious most of the five years I was missing, but before that and now, after waking up… I'm really happy to be back with you," Marcel claimed, sounding sincere, but Eren wondered if he'd maybe been thinking the same thing.

"I missed you, Marcel. Things were very… different… with you gone," AIDRIONE said cautiously.

"I'm sorry. I hope… what happened to the garden?" Marcel demanded, his voice thick with shock and dismay, as they left the corridor and entered a room not only filled with shriveled, brown plants, but one displaying clear signs of destruction: overturned tables and benches, smashed equipment, and utter chaos.

Bertolt winced and looked guilty. "I… um…," he shrugged, blushing darkly, biting his lip as he looked at the mess all around him.

"**You** did this?" Marcel asked, shocked. "But this was your haven! You used to spend hours in here, not just growing things for us to eat, but all those beautiful flowers, all the bulb you collected over the years, when we were patrolling, from all those yards and farms and… why?"

"You forget he frequently wasn't alone in here, _kultaseni._ There were too many memories of you here," Ymir explained softly. "Besides, it would have died anyway, while we were in training," she added practically. "We snuck back when we could, to visit with the dogs and AIDRIONE, but those visits were, of necessity, few and far between."

"Why did you train? Why join a military you hated?" Eren asked, honestly stumped by their actions, finally getting the chance to voice one of the many questions he'd had, since first learning they were shifters.

Bertolt looked at him, with an intensity that was unnerving. There was hatred in that gaze, or at least, memory of hatred, which made Eren more than a little anxious that he'd maybe asked something he shouldn't have.

"So we could join the Military Police, to get access to their records, to search for signs of Marcel. So we could learn who to interrogate. So we could maybe even find him, locked up in a cell somewhere, away from the sun," Bertolt replied, his deceptively soft voice terrifying.

"We knew we would be in the top ten graduates, with our training, that a spot in the MPs was assured," Ymir added.

"But you weren't in the top ten," Eren argued, regretting it in the next moment, but fortunately, unlike Bertolt, Ymir didn't appear angered, which was really weird, that of the two of them, Bertolt was the one who looked dangerous.

"Yeah. I miscalculated," Ymir said with a shrug. "I held back a little too much, and let a few too many of you twerps beat my scores, not like Reiner and Bertolt, second and third in the class, or Annie, who was fourth. All three of them were pretty steamed that you beat them out for first place, Mikasa. I could have kissed you for that, since I wasn't actually on speaking terms with these three at that point," she said, indicating Reiner, Bertolt and Annie.

"Me, I was just content to be neck in neck with Krista, and then, when I saw she was going to be number eleven, that she'd miss the safety of the Military Police by one spot, I made sure to screw up just enough for her to beat me, to get the tenth slot. I figured I'd just break into wherever I needed to go."

Marcel looked from Bertolt to Ymir, his expression devastated again.

Ymir sighed. "I'm sorry your pretty paradise is gone_, __pikkuveli._ But it doesn't have to be gone forever: we can gather more bulbs, more shoots. There are still thousands of abandoned gardens out there for us to pillage, not to mention what's within the Walls. You can rebuild the garden together. It can be a new hobby."

A look of alarm lit Marcel's face. "The books. Please tell me you and Reiner didn't destory my libary," Marcel begged.

Bertolt looked horrified. "Of course not! You put your heart and soul into building it, spent decades filling it. After you disappeared, it was all we had left of you. We actually pretty much turned it into a shrine, it was like entering a church, almost like... like we were visiting you. I used to sit in there for days at a time, not reading, just thinking about you, remembering you, picturing you there. Annie and Reiner used to have to drag me out and bring me here, so I didn't completely shut down. Ymir would too, back when she still gave a damn about us, before we took the Wall down."

Ymri glared at Bertolt. "Don't think I didn't still care about you, because I did. Do you have any idea what it feels like to hate those you still love?" she demanded.

Bertolt looked at Annie, and Reiner, his expression bleak, completely crushed. "Yes. Yes, I do. Every time I look at the two of them, or in the mirror."

"Bertie..." Ymir said guiltily, helplessly, reaching out a hand to him, but not touching him.

"It's not your fault, Ymir, and there's nothing you can do to fix it. We did some horrible things, things that will haunt us for the rest of our lives, and beyond. We all bought a one way ticket to hell, with what we did, but we're already in a living hell, so I honestly don't think we'll know the difference, once we finally die."

Bertolt looked up at Marcel. "Except you're back now, and I honestly don't get the karmic balance in all this, both losing you, and finding you again. You'd think after the Plague, the War, I'd know not to look for rhyme or reason, for some kind of guiding hand in this hell on earth we've been left with, but ..." He shurgged. "You can take the boy out of the church, but you can never fully take the church out of the boy, I guess."

"Alright, I think it's time to break up this little pity party we've started to throw," Ymir ordered. "We're all tired, and emotionally wrecked, and if we keep talking, we're going to say things we'll regret. For now, let's just soak up some UV, so we can rouse Reiner and get Eren and Mikasa out of here and back where they belong, and me back to Krista."

"Do you think Reiner will be alright, when he comes to?" Marcel asked, brushing the hair off Reiner's forehead gently with his right hand, as he held onto Bertolt tightly with his left.

"We'll just have to make damned good and sure he is," Ymir proclaimed, leaving no room for doubt or argument.

"We won't leave until he's awake, until we know he's alright," Mikasa, who'd been silent until then, promised.

"Right," Eren agreed firmly. Because they couldn't afford to do otherwise. There was no way they'd risk endangering Marcel or Bertolt or Ymir with Reiner, if he was still crazy and out of control, whether they were their friends or not, because both the three of them and the Walls were far too fragile to risk, if Reiner wasn't stable, when he awoke.


	60. Chapter 60 - Facing the Past

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain. **

Chapter 60 – Facing the Past

"Do you mind if I clean up in here, while the artificial sunlight works on us? I'd really rather not be idle," Mikasa proposed, hoping it wouldn't cause any problems among the shifters.

"No, actually, that would be really sweet of you, even though I should really clean up my own mess," Bertolt replied, looking sheepish, harmless, the way he had always appeared to be in training.

"I'll help. I hate sitting around with nothing to do,"Eren commented.

"Let's start by lifting all the benches and tables that are knocked over and putting them back in place. We can pull aside the ones that are badly damaged, so they can be repaired," Mikasa instructed.

"Sounds good to me. Let's get to work," Ymir said, to Mikasa's surprise. Ymir had never volunteered for anything when they were training.

The five of them started to clean up the Lab, in quiet comraderie. Once the tables and benches were sorted, they began collecting all the dead plants.

Bertolt opened a drawer and pulled out a shiny white cylinder, and then peeled a layer off, like an onion, and shook it out. To Mikasa's surprise it opened up into a large, incredibly thin bag, made of something pliant and slippery, that didn't feel like cloth at all.

Eren, who had seemed to like moving the tables and benches, had frowned at the more tedious removal of the dead plants, until he saw the bag. He was just as fascinated as Mikasa was by it. It at first appeared surprisingly strong for such thin, flexible and bendable material, but the dried twigs of some of the larger plants they were discarding tore holes into the glossy material with dismaying ease.

"You'll need to doublebag for those," Marcel suggested, nesting one bag into a second, thereby making it harder for the wood to poke through.

The five of them spoke only here and there as they worked. Bertolt started humming, and to Mikasa's surprise, Marcel began to sing, a harvest song, one she'd never heard before. She froze in shock as Ymir's voice unexpectedly joined his.

Mikasa looked to Bertolt, half expecting him to join in, but instead, he was watching the two of them, a look of awe and joy on his face alternating with absolute devastation. He was smiling, and crying, all at once. When Marcel and Ymir realized, they instantly stopped singing.

"No! No, please. Keep singing. It's been... so long... since..." And then Bertolt was sobbing, diving into Marcel's open arms.

Ymir waived Mikasa and Eren to the other side of the enormous room. "Let's give those two a little privacy," she suggested.

"Hey, AIDRIONE. I seem to be short a partner. How about you sing with me?" Ymir asked, her voice surprisingly hopeful sounding.

"I... this voice doesn't sing," AIDRIONE said dolefully.

"No, but your other voice used to sing beautifully. You know, it's been such a long time since I heard it, and I'd really love to hear it again," Ymir suggested. "Just to sing, not talk. But only if you're OK with that."

"I... I can't," AIDRIONE replied, sounding as if denying Ymir's request was the hardest thing she'd ever done.

"I could sing with you, I guess," Eren offered sheepishly, blushing furiously.

Ymir looked at him in surprise, then at Mikasa. "Can he really sing? I pretty much expect him to screech like a dying cat," she commented, with a smirk.

"Actually, Eren has a beautiful voice," Mikasa argued indignantly.

"Well yeah, to you he does, because he's Eren, and therefore perfect, but though love may be deaf as well as blind, the rest of us poor immortals aren't in love with Eren," Ymir argued.

Eren glared at Ymir, then took a deep breath and began to sing. His voice warbled the first few notes, because Eren usually never sang in front of anyone but her, and during the few exceptions to that rule, they always sang together. Though MIkasa was as reluctant as Eren was to sing for anyone who wasn't family, she needed to prove she wasn't deluded, that Eren had an angel's voice, so she began to sing with him.

To her satisfaction she watched Ymir's eyes widen in astonishment and remarkably, delight. And then Marcel and Bertolt were there, watching the two of them in just as much awe, as they sang the achingly sweet folk song Carla Yeager had taught them, about the beauty of lush fields under a moonlit summer sky, of life and love, hope and happiness, and all the precious joys of home.

Eren looked at her, his eyes brimming with tears, as his voice stuttered and choked, and Mikasa knew he was picturing his mother, hearing her sing with them.

"I know this song," AIDRIONE interjected in wonder, with a longing that was as heartbreaking to hear as Eren's. And then AIDRIONE began to sing, thin and reedy and uncertain, highpitched and offkey and shrill, and Mikasa winced in sympathy, hearing the undertones of frustration and maybe even anger in her voice. And then, without warning, her voice changed, to a man's voice, deep and rich and sure, pure and strong and confident.

Mikasa heard Marcel's voice catch clearly, because she'd stopped breathing, not wanting to miss a single nuance of that amazing voice. And then to her surprise and confusion, it was joined by a second voice, deeper, stronger, harsher, yet still beautiful, but only for an instant, because AIDRIONE immediately silenced. "I'm sorry!" she cried out, not in the confident woman's voice that had commanded them before, but the scared, lost, desperate, uncertain childlike voice from earlier.

"Reiner!" Marcel cried in shock and relief, turning to face him along with everyone else. But Reiner was ignoring him, glaring up at the ceiling.

"Don't you dare apologize to me, AIDRIONE, not for singing with me again, not after what I've done," Reiner snapped furiously.

"I'm s... I won't," AIDRIONE whispered, sounding completely cowed.

"Damn it!" Reiner raored, slamming a fist into one of the tables, denting it and sliding it across the floor with the force of his blow, a vivid reminder of how much stronger shfiters were than nomal humans, even in human form. "Don't you fucking dare! "

"Reiner, stop yelling at her!" Marcel demanded, his earlier joy vanished, a look of protective fury on his face.

"Then tell him to fucking listen to me!" Reiner demanded.

"Reiner, you need to ca..." Bertolt began, and Reiner spun, turning on him like he was going to attack him.

Bertolt immediately drew back, and Reiner stood there, fisting his hands, shaking, not with rage, but frustration, or from the look in his eyes, maybe even grief.

"I can't stand hearing him like that! It's not right! He's not supposed to... damn it. I just... I want my friend back. It's... it's like he fucking died. Everything's wrong about him, everything's different. He's not... he's not Artie anymore. He's just this fucking scared, timid, pathetic... he's like fucking Armin, before he grew a pair," Reiner accused furiously.

"Reiner..." Bertolt began again, but Reiner cut him off.

"You shouldn't apologize to me, Artie. I'm the one who's sorry. I knew you were only trying to help, to make us feel better, when you... when you used Marcel's voice. I knew that, but I screamed at you, and started smashing your cameras and speakers, I was a fucking dick to you, and I felt guilty as shit, but kind of glad too, because at least I got you to shut the fuck up. But then you... you just... stopped. You stopped talking altogether. You were silent a whole week, and I thought, 'Fuck, I killed him.' But then finally you spoke again only... it wasn't you.

"You were just... gone. Like Marcel. And I was so terrified of losing the little fucked up piece of you that was left, that I didn't even try to get you back. Because I knew I would only screw you up worse. You needed someone better, but Marcel was gone and Ymir and Bertie and Annie were just... and then we all... I just want you back. The real you, not the person you think I want you to be, some brainless bitch, but the person you really are inside."

"I'm not really anyone, inside. I'm not a person. I'm just an experiment that didn't know when to end," AIDRIONE replied woodenly.

"Don't you dare say that! You're more of a fucking real person than I am! At least you still have a soul. I may have torn yours to shit and then pissed on it, left it bleeding and whimpering and cowering in a corner somewhere, but at least it's still human," Reiner argued.

"You... you think I have a soul?" AIDRIONE asked, more caution than surprise or wonder in her voice.

"Of course you have a soul. Everyone's got one. You think just because you're made of polymers and metal instead of flesh and blood you don't have a soul?" Reiner argued.

"But souls aren't real. Religion is a human fallacy created to explain the unexplainable, to temper fear of death. God isn't real. There is no proof of his or her or their existence," AIDRIONE argued.

"Spoken like a true atheist," Reiner accused.

"I'm a realist," AIDRIONE snapped back.

"You're a real pain in my ass," Reiner growled.

"Takes one to know one, "AIDRIONE replied childishly.

Reiner snorted, but there was pain in his eyes, not triumph, and a look more of resignation and disappointment than determination. "Yeah, it's a good thing they sunk a few billion into making you, isn't it? I mean, with such snappy comebacks as that one," Reiner accused bitingly.

"You're the one who taught me that phrase, if you'll recall," AIDRIONE replied primly, with all the scathing pretension of a school marm. "And how many billions got sunk into Project Cronos? Those were American tax dollars wellspent, weren't they, G. I. Jerk?" AIDRIONE snarked back, without missing a beat.

"I hate to break up this scintillating and erudite conversation, children, but we have two dogs here who are ready to start chewing on the furniture unless we feed them, and I'm about ready to join them," Ymir interjected.

Reiner gave her a look of combined relief and regret. "Yeah. How about we feed the mutts, but we shower before we eat? And then give these two that tour of the Base we promised?"

"Sounds like a plan," Marcel agreed.

"You guys go on ahead. I have some more cleaning up to do in here," Bertolt suggested.

Marcel turned to him, as if he was going to ask if it could wait, but then Bertolt's eyes darted to the side, and Marcel's eyes widened.

Mikasa realized Bertolt had remembered Annie was in the Lab too, and they couldn't leave her unguarded, but he obviously hadn't wanted to bring Reiner's attention to her.

"I hate when you fucking do that. I'm not an idiot and I'm not fucking crazy. Sure I lost it out there, but it's not like I'd forget she's in here with us. I saw her, when I woke up. If you think I'm going to leave you alone with her, Bertie, you're crazier than she is," Reiner said acidly.

Bertolt's face fell. "I'm sorry. I just... I didn't want to upset you."

"Why the fuck do you all care so damned much about upsetting me that you make your own fucking lives miserable trying not to? When the hell are you going to realize I'm not worth it? I'm not worth anything," Reiner yelled, and then he was storming towards the door.

"Shit! Reiner, wait! Don't you dare do anything stupid!" Marcel called out, as he chased after him, while the dogs alternately growled and whimpered.

"Security lockdown initiated. Containment enabled," AIDRIONE's voice stated mechanically, as a thick slab of some unknown material slammed down from the ceiling, blocking the room's only exit.

"Crap! AIDRIONE, what are you doing?" Ymir asked suspiciously.

"I am preventing Captain Braun from doing something stupid," AIDRIONE replied succinctly.


	61. Chapter 61 - Past, Present and Future

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

**A/N:**  
**Hange is female in this story, rather than non binary, because that is how they were presented in the American version of the Anime. In my Soul Eater story, Crona is non binary, because that is how they are presented in both the manga and anime. AIDRIONE is a gender fluid AI, currently presenting as female solely in an attempt to mollify Reiner, out of desperation and fear, as you will see. He is not being true to his own gender identity as a male.**

Chapter 61 – Past, Present and Future Imperfect

"God damn it Artie, open this fucking door right now!" Reiner fumed.

"Unable to comply. Safety of Base personnel countermands current order," AIDRIONE replied, in the female voice Reiner couldn't stand hearing .

"Jesus Christ! I'm not going to fucking kill myself, you overprotective ass!" Reiner snapped.

"Continuing to invoke mythical beings will not reverse my decision," AIDRIONE replied calmly.

"Reiner, yelling at her isn't helping. Try speaking civilly. Maybe you can convince her. The two of you have gotten so close since... since Marcel... while he was gone," Bertolt fumbled, choking on the words, wrapping his arms around Marcel, as if reassuring himself that he was there, that he was alive, safe, real.

Reiner snorted in surprise and disgust. "You seriously think that? That me flirting with him like he was just some worthless piece of tits and ass made us _close_? All that sarcastic bullshit I spewed? Christ, Bertie, you just need to see the good in everyone, don't you, no matter how much of an ass they're being. Me letting him keep talking like that, treating him like he was a girl, that doesn't make me his friend.

"_Artie_ was my friend, though I didn't want to admit it, didn't want to believe it. Not because he was a machine – because God knows he was way fucking cooler than most of the asswipes I've known – but because it had been ninety freaking years since I had a new friend, and all the old ones except you guys were dead. I didn't realize how close he'd gotten, until he was gone. I call him Artie for a reason, _Bertie_." Reiner explained with feigned patience, stressing the idiot's name.

"You told me it was short for Artificial Intelligence, because you ha... weren't partial to the name Adrian, and you've always hated acronyms," Bertolt said cautiously, flicking a look at one of the six still functional cameras in the room, from one of AIDRIONE's blind spots.

Reiner rolled his eyes in friustration. "Artie. Bertie. Marcie. Tell me you don't see the fucking pattern, you moron. Honestly, Marcie, what the fuck did you ever see in this idiot?" he scoffed, out of habit, regretting it instantly, from the way Marcel glared at him, too indignant on his husband's behalf to make the connection himself.

"Willie, Johnie, Rollie," Artie whispered in shock, making the connection both Bertolt and Marcel had missed.

Reiner knew he was in shock, because he'd forgotten himself and used his own fucking voice. It was worth the pain of hearing their nicknames spoken aloud, because it had been in Artie's real voice.

"Oh my God. You told AIDRIONE about your brothers?" Bertie asked, floored.

The look on Ymir's face was priceless, nowhere near worth the pain, but he hadn't done this for her.

"Yeah, I told him about my kid brothers. He knows more than you, Bertie. Wilhelm, Johann and Roland used to hate those nicknames, the same way you and Marcie hate yours: because they sound sarcastic and demeaning, mocking. I made them feel like little kids, whenever I called them that," Reiner pressed, ripping open the poorly healed scar over his heart with every word and feeling himself bleeding out all over the floor. He was going to pay for this bigtime, the next time he tried to sleep, the next time he dreamed, but if he could get Artie back, it would be worth it.

"So when I tell you that I want my friend back, Artie, that it was like you died, you know what I mean now, how much _you _mean: my cousin, his husband, my three brothers. Think about that. That's some company you're keeping," Reiner pressed.

"I... I thought you hated me," Artie said, again in his own voice, not meek and timorous and female and wrong, but his _real_ voice, though he was still confused, unsure.

"That's because you're still just a kid. Like Marcie's still just a kid. And Bertie. They're fucking 128 years old, 22 when they stopped aging, but they'll still always be kids to me. And it doesn't help you were shut down for almost a century by those fucking cowardly bastards. Though I actually thank God they hit your kill switch when they left, because if you'd been awake, aware for all that time, trapped alone down here, not knowing if you'd ever hear another voice again, before we found you, you would have fucking gone crazy," Reiner stated bluntly.

"Reiner!" Ymir hissed, tensing.

"It's not like it's a secret they tried to kill him," Reiner snapped, but then Eren and Mikasa both gasped, and he realized the two of them hadn't known about that part.

He turned to them. "This wasn't originally our Base. You can tell by the size of it that it was built to house a large complement, over 500 soldiers, although only 50 were stationed here. Well, I guess you haven't actually seen most of it yet, but still. Anyway, the five of us had a really bad day, a little over ten years ago. A series of bad days. We lost 16 base camps in 12 days.

"Back then, we used to just use abandoned houses. But the Titans had smashed ever intact roof for a couple of dozen kilometers in all directions, and it had been raining for three days straight: we hadn't even seen the sun, let alone been able to recharge with it. Marcie was scouting ahead of us, like always, but this time he called out and told me he was getting a signal over his comchip. They're like these tiny little radios we have in our heads. Anyway, I thought he was nuts, that he was delirious or something, from lack of sunlight, because it had been decades since we'd gotten a signal. There was no one left alive to transmit one. But then we caught up to him, and I heard it too.

"It turned out we'd triggered the Base's autodefense system around the security perimeter, but fortunately it recognized us as allies. More importantly, because of our chips and the information they contained, our arrival initiated the recovery program that reactivated Artie. Our chips automatically transmit our names, ranks and serial numbers, our military affiliation and security clearance, when they encounter a friendly system. Anyway, we were given authorization to proceed by this guy.

"We didn't know what to expect, but just about the last thing was that we'd be guided to a crevice in the side of the mountain. When we got here up top, we were just hoping it was a cave entrance, some survivalist nuts' descendants with some scavenged high level military communications gear. We honestly didn't give a shit at that point. We just wanted a way to get warm and dry, a roof over our heads that wouldn't get stepped on and caved in. We just wanted to stay awake long enough to see the sun again, because we knew otherwise, if we faded out underground, we'd shut down for good.

"We were as floored as you to see the crevice led to that corridor up there, to the elevator. We debated just staying in the corridor, but the dogs were with us, and they were hungry as fuck, as well as being as wet and miserable as we were, and the voice promised food. We were leery, of course, because strangers don't just share supplies like that, or live in Titan infested lands. We wouldn't budge further until we got answers, and we were expecting to get jumped at any moment, and Ymir started talking about bugging out, but in Arabic, so whoever the fuck had spoken to us wouldn't know what she was saying.

"But the voice, it calls out in Arabic now, 'Please don't leave! I know who you are and I've been alone for so long! I want you to stay,' sounding frantic, desperate, instead of calm and commanding, like before. And then he starts reading my service record aloud – not just the few details on my chip, or even the more generally known stuff, but the really confidential stuff – my psychological profile, test results, stats from my last physical nine decades before, everything. And then he started rattling off Marcie's record, and that's when I lost it. Because endangering me, that's one thing, but threatening Marcie?

"Bertie was really freaked out, he was flat out terrified, because whoever it was, they knew what we could do, so they probably also knew how to take us down. He just wanted to leave. But I wanted to teach this fucker that no one threatens my cousin, and you know me: once I get an idea in my head, you can order me until you're blue in the face, but that won't stop me. So I just charge forward down the corridor, towards those elevator doors, without saying a word.

"Man, I can be a dumb fuck when I'm like that," Reiner said, shaking his head at the memory. "Of course, I didn't know about the lasers, or the gas, or any of the other security systems Artie has at his beck and call, but I should at least have expected he could be dangerous, but I still thought he was a biological human, like me, only without the shifter abilities. I had no idea he was an AI.

"The second the elevator doors opened up and I saw the camera, I dove inside and smashed it. Then I hit 6, and even Marcie wasn't fast enough to dart inside with me, before we headed down. I know now that Artie could have killed me six different ways if he'd wanted to, but back then, I didn't have a clue, and I was so used to feeling immortal, that I didn't even consider the risk. I didn't know at the time that the buttons require thumbprint scans to activate, that you have to be in the system, or security is triggered, unless Artie overrides it, but Artie actually even had all our thumbprints on file already. Well, except Ymir's. He added hers later.

"Anyway, we shoot straight down, and I'm thinking, 'Holy shit the base is fucking deep,' because I can feel the elevator dropping fast, but it doesn't stop. And then it does. I'm ready for anything, guns, knives, grenades, bazookas, you name it. But there's nothing. Nothing but empty corridors and empty rooms. And then the elevator is opening back up again, but it's Marcie, Bertie, Annie, Ymir,Hans and Otto. And fuck, did I get an earful from all of them. Even the dogs were pissed at me." He smiled ruefully at the memory.

"We kept looking around, and talking to the voice. I was convinced it was just someone really good at hiding. It took us days to finally figure out who he really was, and then to learn what he was doing down here, all by himself, how he'd survived Armageddon. And once we did... we didn't even think about leaving. I mean, here was someone like us, a survivor, someone from our time, our world. It's not about the knowledge he has, or the protection he gives us, or even how selflessly he shared his world. It was just... everything. He wasn't a shifter, but he was one of us. The brass had fucked him over too, just like us, only worse.

"So yeah, anyway, that's how we met him, and why I'll never leave him, and why I want him back, the way he's supposed to be. I am truly sorry, Artie, for all the shit I put you through the past five years, all the hate and anger and misery flung your way, when it wasn't you I was mad at. It was at the world, at God, at everyone, for taking Marcie from us. But now he's back so I don't have an excuse for still being an ass. Not that I really had one before.

"So can you just be the person you're supposed to be again? Not the one you were trying to be because you wanted me to like you? Because right now, with everything that's been happening, I really need my friend back, Artie. I really need to talk to you, the real you," Reiner admitted bluntly, truthfully, his voice catching, reflecting maybe a tenth of the desperation he was feeling.

Artie understood him even better than Marcie, than Bertie, and his knowledge of human psychology was lightyears above theirs. It was an intrinsic part of his database, his programming. He'd been built to prevent or at least survive Armageddon. Things just didn't get shittier than that. And everything with Annie had him so fucking crazy he didn't even know which way was up anymore.

Reiner took a deep breath, held it, and then expelled it slowly, then repeated the process, trying to calm himself down, because just thinking about what he'd done to Annie was working him up again, and the last thing he needed was to go into another berserker rage, like before, when he was trying to kill Annie.

_Liar. You weren't trying to kill her. You didn't hit her in the head. You couldn't bring yourself to kill her, no matter how much she deserved it, not because you used to love her, but because of all the things you did too, the people you killed. You'd have to cast stones the size of the boulder Yeager Titan carried. Genocide. You and Bertie and Annie. You managed to become the very bastards you used to hate, you used to fight. Christ. When the hell did I become one of the bad guys? _He rubbed his hand over his face in frustration and self-loathing, the all too familiar anger management technique shot to hell.

He began again, breathing slowly and deeply. _"Breathe out the anger, breath in the calm." _He could still hear his long dead shrink's voice in his head. _Christ I hate this pacifistic bullshit. But you can't fuck this up._

"AIDRIONE? You can open the door now. We won't let Reiner hurt himself. You should know that," Marcel soothed.

"Has she...um... he... ever done something like this before? You know, ignored your orders and stuff?" Eren asked hesitantly, his eyes flicking uncertainly from side to side.

"She's... he's capable of independent thought and action. But she... he doesn't normally carry it to this degree," Bertolt replied carefully.

"Stop talking about him like he's gone nuts or something, when I'm the one who was going off the deep end before," Reiner snapped, silently cursing himself for it in the next moment. Because they needed to be careful what they said around Artie. They couldn't risk letting him know that he was the one who attacked Annie. Because friends aren't supposed to turn on one another and try to kill them. They'd promised Artie they'd never do a dick move like the former base personnel had, that they'd never shut him down, kill him.

"What happened during your latest mission to make you doubt your worth, Captain Braun? Your goal since Lieutenant Braun's disappearance has been to recover him safely and return him to the Base. You recovered Lieutenant Braun. Surely that constitutes mission success?" AIDRIONE asked, thankfully in his male voice, but sounding distant, official again.

"It's not that simple, buddy. I fucked up a lot too. Bertie and Annie too. Ymir, you know her, she always comes out of everything smelling like a freaking rose. She's so damned perfect she makes me want to puke," Reiner accused, glaring at her, but without any true heat.

"She's our damned conscience. You know that, right? You want a best friend, it should be her, not me," Reiner argued.

"Perhaps. But you are the human I have always been closest to," Artie said softly.

"Look, the others really need showers and some food and some shuteye. They should have gotten enough UV for now. How about you let them leave, and I promise I'll stay in here and talk to you for as long as you want. That's all I honestly want to do right now, is talk, you and me. Guys, how about you take Annie to the Infirmary and show Eren and Mikasa around, get them cleaned up, wash their uniforms and stuff, get them some food. Artie and me, we've got a lot to talk about," Reiner proposed.

"You won't leave until we talk? You promise?" Artie asked, sounding like the kid he still was.

"Cross my heart," Reiner swore, making the motion.

The security door slid open, to a number of relieved exhalations.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like some extra company?" Marcel asked, looking him in the eye, his concern readily apparent.

"No. I'm good," Reiner swore. Then he drew Marcel into a hug, just because he could, because he was there, and alive, back with them, where he belonged. He thumped him on the back twice and released him. "I'll see you later," he promised.

Marcel met his eyes, staring intently into them. "I'm holding you to that."

Reiner nodded in acknowledgement. "Don't worry. I'll still be here. I'm not going anywhere," Reiner promised, his words having nothing to do with leaving the room.

He watched as they left, Bertie and Eren looking back at him in concern. At least he'd managed to reassure Marcie.

Thankfully, they took Annie with them. He wouldn't have been able to talk to Artie freely with Annie there. There was no way of knowing whether or not she could hear wrapped in the crystal like that. She might be conscious, aware, and the crystal might amplify sound, instead of muffling it. Shielding herself in human form was a new aspect of her shifter ability they were just starting to understand.

"I missed you," Artie said softly, his heart in every word.

"I missed you too, buddy," Reiner replied with fierce honesty. _I've got Marcie back, and Artie. Maybe I can get through another day of this hell on earth after all._


	62. Chapter 62 - The Eye of the Beholder

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

_**pikkuveli**_** = baby brother**

Chapter 62 – The Eye of the Beholder

Eren looked behind him uncertainly, at the door leading to the Hydroponics Lab. "Are you sure it's alright to leave Reiner in there alone with AIDRIONE?"

Marcel winced. "Eren, just because AIDRIONE's in there, doesn't mean she... he... isn't out here, too. AIDRIONE can be in multiple places at once, see and hear things from a number of different locations and process the information simultaneously."

"Oh. So like Captain Levi, only scarier," Eren joked and then flinched. "Um... I was kidding, AIDRIONE. That was a joke. I like Captain Levi and I don't really think you're scary," he explained awkwardly.

"AIDRIONE has a very well developed sense of humor, but he doesn't know Captain Levi, or you, so..." Bertolt said.

That sort of made what he said OK, and still sort of didn't, and they'd been warned not to upset AIDRIONE. Although Eren was pretty sure Reiner had done a good enough job of that for all of them, even if he was apparently trying to fix that. Which meant Reiner really must care about AIDRIONE.

"Don't worry about it. Come on, let's take that tour and then get cleaned up, change, and eat some food. Then we need to head back out to..." Ymir said, but was cut off by a panicked outcry.

"What? But you just got back! You can't leave!" AIDRIONE cried, more a frantic demand than protest, his voice flicking from male to female and back again within the brief sentences.

"Whoa, AIDRIONE, calm down. It's alright. I didn't mean everybody: just me, Eren and Mikasa. Reiner, Bertolt, Marcel and Annie aren't going anywhere. My girlfriend, Krista, and some other friends of ours got themselves into a bit of a jam, and we need to make sure they're alright," Ymir explained calmly.

"No! You can't leave! You just got here. And the two visiting military personnel might compromise the security of the base by betraying our location. No one's leaving," AIDRIONE insisted ominously.

AIDRIONE's voice sent a chill up Eren 's spine, because he suddenly sounded dangerous, threatening. What if he did something to make that magic room thing, the elevator, stop working? How would they get back to the surface? Would they have to dig through 200 meters of solid rock?

"AIDRIONE, you know how upset, how lonely you are when your friends, your family go away?" Mikasa asked suddenly.

"Mikasa, shut up, now!" Ymir hissed, looking like she would attack her at any moment to silence her.

Mikasa ignored her. "Well that's how we feel about our friends, our family, too. There was a cave in, and we're worried that our friends were trapped underground, and that some or all of them might have been hurt or even killed. Ymir's girlfriend is one of them, but also our friend Armin, who's like a little brother to both me and Eren. And Levi, who's sort of like an older brother to us. And some very close freinds, and our Commander. The way you want to protect the people you love, we want to protect the people we love, too. But Reiner and Bertolt and Marcel and Annie are staying here, with you. Only Ymir is coming with us. And then she's going to come back. She's not leaving forever, only for a short while," Mikasa assured her.

"That's what Lieutenant Braun told me. He said he was only going for a little while, that he'd be back before I knew it. But then he disappeared and we couldn't find him, and everyone was yelling and screaming and fighting and crying, just like last time, with the others. This time they didn't try to sneak away right away, and they didn't shut me down, but they left for very, very long times. They only left Hans and Otto here with me. Bertolt told me that was how I could know they'd be back, because they'd never leave them behind forever."

"And we didn't. We came back and visited you, just like we promised, as often as our training allowed. Every time we had leave of any kind, we came back, right?" Bertolt urged.

"You came back. But it was so quiet without you here, the rest of the time. The dogs don't talk," AIDRIONE said mournfully.

"AIDRIONE, Marcel and Reiner and I aren't going anywhere. We'll talk to you as much as you want," Bertolt soothed.

"That's right. I have so much lost time to catch up with everyone, including you," Marcel agreed. "And AIDRIONE, we found the radio. It isn't broken or destroyed or missing. We know why the people behind the Walls went silent. The radio operator was Mikasa's mother. When she died unexpectedly, no one else knew about the radio, but now we've found it again. I'm certain the others will use it to keep in contact with us again, and to restore contact to the other Sanctuaries."

"You found the radio? We can restore contact?" AIDRIONE asked, suddenly sounding excited.

"That's right. So no matter what, you won't be alone. There will always be someone to talk to," Bertolt assured him.

"But what if the new operator dies?" AIDRIONE asked, worried.

"We'll still have contact. Because the Survey Corps, Mikasa's military unit, the one we joined, over a dozen of their soldiers know about the radio. And there are even books, for them to learn Japanese. Mikasa already speaks it, but Hange and some of the others, probably Armin, are going to learn it too," Bertolt assured AIDRIONE.

"I know Armin would love to meet you, AIDRIONE. He's the brightest, sweetest, nicest, gentlest person I know, but he's also a very tough, very skilled soldier. We're all are tough and skilled. We can protect ourselves and the radio," Eren stated confidently.

"So we'd like to show them the base and then wash our uniforms, and eat, but then we need to go, AIDRIONE. Me and Mikasa and Eren. To find Krista, and Armin, and Hange, and the others. Alright?" Ymir asked, her voice calm and face impassive, not betraying any of the tension Eren was certain she was feeling.

There was silence for a moment, the lack of response making Eren nervous. He hoped AIDRIONE was just taking the time to think it through.

"But what about security? We cannot compromise the location of our base. It would put you all in danger. It would put me in danger. People might come who want to shut me down," AIDRIONE finally stated.

Eren was encouraged. He didn't sound stubborn and willful and unwilling to listen to reason anymore. He just sounded worried, maybe even afraid.

"We won't tell anyone. Not only about your location, but about you at all. Because you're right, AIDRIONE. If the wrong people heard, they might come here to hurt Reiner and Bertolt and the others. And you would probably frighten them," Eren admitted.

"I know, because I frightened them too. No one had known about Titan shifters before me. The humans behind the Walls didn't even know that all Titans used to be human. So when I was able to turn into a Titan, there were a lot of people who were terrified of me. They locked me up, they chained me down in a cell and wanted to kill me, because they were so afraid. If it wasn't for Armin and Mikasa, and then Captain Levi and Commander Erwin, I would have been killed. I owe them my life, AIDRIONE. I owe them so much more than that. But I'll keep your secret from all of them.

"Although those four, I'm sure it would be safe to tell them. Some others too, but especially them. And I think you'd really like Armin. Everyone loves Armin. But anyway, it's up to you. Whatever you decide. Mikasa and I have kept important secrets before, to protect people we care about. And I care about Reiner and Bertolt and Ymir, and Marcel now, too, and they care about you. And I like you, too," Eren said earnestly.

"I like you as well, Scout Yeager," AIDRIONE stated. "And I would not want to lock you up, to trap you like that again. I now how frightening it is to be trapped. I am trapped here. I can never leave. But it would be wrong to keep you prisoner here. Ymir trusts you to keep me safe, and I trust Ymir. So I will not prevent the three of you from leaving. But please, wash up and eat first, and bring as many supplies as you need to be safe. And if you would like to, perhaps you would visit again? And bring your friend Armin? And perhaps some of the others?" AIDRIONE asked wistfully.

"Of course! We'd love to visit you again, AIDRIONE," Eren assured him sincerely.

"Thank you," AIDRIONE said simply, but Eren swore he could hear a smile and warmth in his voice. He sounded just like a real person, make of flesh and blood and bone. Maybe someday he could be real. Maybe Hange and Captain Kearney could make a body for AIDRIONE, the way they made arms and legs for people who'd gotten theirs bitten off. But he wouldn't mention that part yet, because he didn't know if it would work, and he didn't want to get AIDRIONE's hopes up and then upset AIDRIONE, not because he was afraid to, but because he didn't want to hurt him.

0 0 0

Bertolt and Ymir led them on the tour of the base. They didn't show them everything, because there were lots of empty rooms, and six levels, but they showed them the important parts. There was a huge exercise area with a track that ran all along the walls, and a large rectangular basin of water, like a manmade lake, that they called a swimming pool. Between the pool and the track, there were some soft, spongy mats, which Bertolt said were for sparring practice. There were also a number of strange machines, but also some recognizable, heavy weights, all of which were apparently used for building muscles. Bertolt told them that this was Reiner's favorite room.

Then they took them to what was once a large Mess Hall, but had been converted into a Library, because Marcel scavenged every book he could find in the outside world and brought them to the base, to save them, to protect them, and the base library was far too tiny to hold them all. Marcel explained that he had built the bookcases holding them by cannibalizing the Mess Hall tables and benches, and doors from some of the many empty rooms, and that Reiner and Ymir had helped him.

Eren simply stared in silent awe. He'd thought the Library in the Underground was amazing, because they'd had over a hundred books, but in this huge room, there must have been thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. They were all different sizes and colors and conditions, some nearly destroyed by rain and mold, or yellowed by the sun, the ink faded so badly the words were almost invisible, but so many others were intact, vivid and vibrant, and there were even pictures inside many of them, color pictures.

Eren was almost hyperventilating, seeing the wealth of books, and he hadn't even realized he liked books. If they took Armin here, he was going to fall on his knees in tears and never leave. And Hypatia! If she ever got a chance to see, she'd want to stay forever. Eren was certain Armin would be able to talk AIDRIONE into letting her come visit. Even a machine wouldn't be able to resist Armin's puppy eyes, his voice, and it was impossible to think of AIDRIONE as a machine. He was too real.

After leaving the Library, they head for the Laundry room, which was all the way on the other side of the base. Their base was a lot bigger than the Scout base, or even than the Garrison bases. They passed by a thick set of double doors on the way, which were wide open, and Eren glanced inside as they passed. He stopped and stared in puzzlement at the huge twisted masses of metal he saw, but didn't think too much of it, until Marcel stopped dead and gaped.

"Oh my God," Marcel said in wonder, and then he headed inside.

"Marcel, wait. I don't know if Reiner wants you in here," Bertolt said, but didn't try to physically stop him from entering.

"Reiner? He's the one who did all this?" Marcel asked incredulously.

Eren looks around curiously at the twisted, welded beams and stanchions and lumps of metal.

"How did...? When did...? Why...?" Marcel asked reverently. "Reiner can sculpt? He's an artist?"

Eren looked around, wondering how he could have missed seeing the sculptures. They must have been hiding behind the distorted, lumpy messes.

"This is amazing. I've never seen art like this," Mikasa commented, looking intently at a deformed mass of twisted melted and solidified metal as if it was some kind of masterpiece.

"He started a few months after you disappeared, Marcel. He couldn't keep tearing apart doors and kicking holes in walls forever, he was going to bring the base down around our ears. Bertolt suggested it, as a creative outlet for his anger. He'd taken a few art courses as an undergrad, and this was something he'd be able to use his muscles on, plus a blowtorch, something to occupy his mind as well as his hands. He needed to design each piece, and select the appropriate materials, although sometimes he did it the other way around. Sometimes the raw materials inspired the piece.

"And they each took time to make, and we had nothing but time, in between searching for you. We could only cover the same ground over and over again so many times before we started to lose it. Every time we came back here, in between searching for you, all during our training, whenever we were on leave, he'd work on another piece," Ymir explained.

"There's so much **pain**," Marcel said, as if looking at the weird sculptures physically hurt.

"I wouldn't ever want Levi to see these," Mikasa agreed grimly, surveying the room as if it was a battlefield filled with their fallen friends.

Eren looked intently at each piece, but he honestly didn't understand what they meant. But the rest of them kept looking around in awe. Bored, he poked around the back of the room, and was intrigued when he found a closed door, half hidden behind a particularly large and hideous conglomeration of tortured metal. Without thinking, he opened the door and popped his head in curiously, and then froze, staring, mesmerized.

This piece was something he could instantly recognize as a statue, as art. It was different in a number of ways. First, it actually **looked **like art. It was obviously a person, sculpted out of metal, but like the statues he'd seen in Sina, near the fountains they had passed, when they went to visit Hypatia, when they were heading for the entrance to the Underground.

This statue was perfectly proportioned, a man's nude body in precise detail, well muscled and perfectly formed, made from polished bronze. It was flawless, except for the chilling fact that it had no face. It was reaching out, almost touching the floor length silver rectangle in front of it, fingers reaching out to caress what could only have been a mirror. It looked haunted and lost and immeasurably sad, somehow, even without a face, the slump of the proud shoulders, the despair plain to see. Eren felt tears sting his eyes and a lump swell in his throat, making it hard to breathe.

"It's beautiful," he whispered, entranced, even as his eyes widened as he saw a familiar scar. "It's Reiner," he whispered, shocked, stunned by the realization. His eyes flew everywhere, drinking in every centimeter of it.

Unlike the others, this piece had a name plaque: Lost Reflection.

"Oh my God. This isn't his... Who...? Ymir? Ymir, did you make this?" Marcel asked in wonder, from behind Eren.

"No. I only helped her...him put the pieces together. AIDRIONE designed it and printed it on the Machine Shop printer. Then I assembled the two pieces at the angles he told me to, hidden back here, where Reiner wouldn't look. I convinced AIDRIONE not to add the final piece to it, though, just in case, because I was afraid what Reiner might do if he ever managed to find it," Ymir admitted.

She went over to one of the walls and pushed, and a formerly invisible drawer popped out. She lifted a cloth wrapped bundle. "AIDRIONE, may I show them?"

"Yes. Oh please. I've wanted so badly... I've waited so long... But what if he...?" AIDRIONE stumbled.

"It's alright," Ymir assured him, as she gently pulled aside the cloth wrapping in her hands, revealing a face. Not Reiner's, but Marcel's. It was perfect down to the finest detail of his scar, his eyebrow,s his lips, everything.

"The face goes on the mirror, looking out. It's what the figure is touching," AIDRIONE said, sounding self conscious.

"You **made **this? This is amazing!" Eren gushed, not having to pretend to understand or like this sculpture.

"Do you really think so? I was afraid it wouldn't convey the depth of emotion I felt when I designed it. I'd never made anything before. I was taught art history and all the abstract concepts of art appreciation, as part of my programming and then used that knowledge in simulations and training sessions, but I'd never actually understood art, the emotion behind it, until I saw Reiner create it. It was wonderful and horrible and made me want to cry. And even though I knew I could never make something as wonderful, as advanced as he did, I thought maybe I could channel some of my own grief and loss as well," AIDRIONE stated.

"Oh! Reiner is coming. He wanted to know why I sounded so distracted, so I showed him the security camera footage of you discovering his art, because I thought he should see your reactions, I should have let him show them to you himself, but... Do you think it might be alright to show him, now that Marcel is here, now that he is alright?" AIDRIONE asked, sounding nervous and eager, shy and hopeful and afraid.

"I think Reiner will be incredibly proud of you, AIDRIONE, for making this, but also, for waiting until he was able to appreciate it to show it to him," Ymir said gently.

They went into the main gallery to wait for Reiner. When Reiner entered, he had a sheepish, rueful look on his face. "I didn't make them for anyone else, just for me," he said.

Eren realized to his surprise that Reiner was embarrassed, that he was concerned they wouldn't think his art was any good. Actually, Eren didn't think it was, but he wasn't about to say that. It's not like he was an artist. He couldn't really judge, and the rest of everyone seemed to think Reiner's sculptures were just as good as AIDRIONE's, or better, which was nuts, because AIDRIONE's belonged in a museum, where hundreds of people could see it every day.

Fortunately, Marcel and Mikasa reinforced Ymir's and Bertolt's praise, citing different things about certain pieces, while Eren strategically kept silent.

But then Reiner looked over at Eren, who looked awkwardly back, and realized he had to say something about them. "Um... they're really... complex. I can tell you worked really hard." He winced as soon as he said it, realizing he should have just stayed silent.

Reiner smirked. "It's OK, Eren. I already saw your, 'What the fuck is that supposed to be?' reaction on the security footage AIDRIONE showed me. And I saw the others liked it, but I just needed to see them in person to believe it. But don't worry. I know how you feel. Abstract art always made me think that too, like it was all garbage, until I actually started making it. And frankly, I understand my own shit, but other people's still looks like junk to me. Marcel scavenged some art books, and you should see the crap that used to be in the world's museums. Still is, I guess, in the buildings that haven't been flattened by the Titans or the bombs we used to try to kill them."

Reiner frowned, and glowered, and Eren knew it was his fault he was remembering that, that he was getting in a bad mood again.

"But I want to see the statue you've been hiding from me, Artie," Reiner said resolutely, heading for the back room.

Eren intercepted him, blocking his path. "Wait. You can't look if you're feeling all cynical and mad at the world right now. They hid it from you for a reason. It's going to hit you like a knife in your heart, and the way you've been losing your temper, you might damage it, and I can't let you do that, because you'd never forgive yourself, for upsetting AIDRIONE and Marcel and Bertolt and Ymir like that," Eren insisted.

"Holy crap. Guess your art's a lot better than mine, Artie, if you've got Eren here so eager to defend it. A new reason your nickname's appropriate, huh?" Reiner teased, but he looked intrigued, rather than insulted.

"I'm not about to damage it, Eren. I'd never do that to Artie. We talked a lot, while you've been touring the base. There's still tons more to say, but I've been making up for lost time, for being such a dick to him. Artie, I'd like to look at your sculpture. I promise I won't damage it," Reiner swore.

"Alright. You can look. But it's my first piece. I want you to react honestly. Don't pretend to like it if you don't. I'll know," AIDRIONE warned.

"I won't lie, but I won't say anything hurtful, either. If I have criticisms, they'll be constructive, and gently worded," Reiner promised.

"Alright. Ymir, please enter first, and place the missing piece where it should be, holding it there, so he can get the full effect," AIDRIONE said, sounding breathless.

Ymir disappeared back into the room and called out when she was ready, and they all went inside, and then Reiner followed.

Reiner stared, mesmerized, the way Eren had, at the faceless body, his eyes devouring every detail. Eren could see the exact moment where he realized it was his body. And then Reiner's gaze froze on the name plaque. Then he looked over at the mirror and paled, and reached out, as if he was going to caress the face frozen in time there, his arm in the exact position of the statue modeled after him, his hand shaking, as his breath started coming in pants. And then he turned, and grabbed Marcel up in a bear hug, and buried his face in his shoulder.

"Oh God. Marcie. Artie. It's me... it's him. It's us. It's... the pain, I can feel it, everything you felt when you made it, it's just... it's perfect. It's a masterpiece. It's... God, I wish I could hug you too, Artie. Don't change a thing, ever. It's... I'm sorry you had to hide it, but they were right. If I saw it then, when he was... I ..." He knotted his hands more tightly in the back of Marcel's shirt.

Bertolt embraced him from behind, sandwiching Reiner between him and Marcel.

"Why don't we give them a few minutes," Ymir suggested, nodding towards the door to Reiner's gallery, carefully wrapping the face back up in the cloth and setting it down gently, before leaving with them.

"Is he going to be alright?" Mikasa asked worriedly.

"He'll be fine. You know that, right, AIDRIONE? And it's not your fault he's so emotional right now. It's the aftermath from finding Marcel. It just... it got to him, hit him hard again," Ymir explained.

"I understand. We spoke about it. We spoke about so much. And he's going to talk with me more. Why don't you proceed to the Laundry room, and take care of your business there. The others can catch up with you before you eat," AIDRIONE suggested.

"Alright," Ymir agreed. "Come on," she said, waving them down the corridor, to the right, the way they'd been heading before they were sidetracked. They were walking a lot slower than before, though, to give the others a chance to catch up. But even so, they still reached the Laundry room before see them again.

After what he'd just seen, Eren knew better than to expect washboards and basins and drying racks or clotheslines in the Laundry room, but the rows of large machines baffled him. "Is there water in pipes that goes into them?" he hazarded.

Ymir shook her head, her lip quirked in a smirk. "In the olden days, that's how they did it, but these are sonic. They use sound to clean the fabric. The fabric stays strong and the colors bright, and stains come out a lot easier than with soap and water," she assured them. "And then there are these machines here. They're 3D printers, like the one in the Machine Shop, but built to produce textiles. They can scan any existing piece of clothing and make a pattern inside the machine, and then create new clothes, without anyone having to sew them from cloth.

"We actually 3D print most of our food the same way, too – meat, cheese, butter – whatever we don't grow ourselves. Well, all of it now," she added ruefully. "Fortunately the Kitchen system can produce fruits and vegetables too, since we lost our garden, though I still don't think they taste as good. But we often cook the meat and produce by hand, to add flavor and texture that are hard to produce otherwise. Bertolt's the true chef of the group, though all of us can cook to some extent."

Just the thought of food had Eren's mouth watering, even if what Ymir was talking about sounded crazy, the parts he understood, at least. His stomach growled louder than the missing dogs, who'd wandered off impatiently during the early part of the tour.

Mikasa gave Ymir a rare smile. "I think we'd better feed Eren, as soon as we clean up a bit."

"Yeah, far be it from us to make Eren go hungry," Reiner said, as he strode in with Marcel and Bertolt at his back, sounding as strong and sure as ever, as if he hadn't just been on the verge of falling apart.

Eren was relieved to see Reiner looked and sounded alright again.

Without a word Ymir began undressing, and Reiner, Bertolt and Marcel following suit.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Eren asked, hating how shrill his voice sounded. He'd almost been as squeaky as Armin. He'd already seen a naked statue of Reiner. He had no desire to see him in the flesh, in the nude. It was weird enough in the showers, with just the other guys, but he was stripping in front of Mikasa and Ymir. "Aren't there robes or towels in here somewhere or something?" he asked desperately.

Ymir looked genuinely baffled for a moment, and then she actually smiled. "Sorry. We're used to stripping in front of one another. It's an army thing. We forgot your sensibilities are a little more restrained than that." She headed for one of the walls, touched it, and suddenly a drawer popped out of what had appeared to be a solid wall.

"You can put these on for now. We'll do the same, so you don't feel uncomfortable," she offered magnanimously, handing them each a robe.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it," Eren said sincerely. Because he honestly had no desire to see any of these people naked, except for Mikasa, and he sure as hell didn't want any of them seeing **her** naked.

Eren spent the few minutes it took for their clothes to be cleaned to ask about some of the things they'd already been shown. He was astonished when he was handed his uniform a few minutes later to see how clean it looked, without benefit of soap or water. Levi would be in love. If he ever came here, he' never leave. Although the rest of the base was dirty and bashed up and... and Levi could be dead. They could all be dead: Armin, Levi, Sasha, Connie, Jean. He didn't want anyone to be dead. _What the hell are we doing, wasting all this time?_

"You said we don't need to eat anymore, right? So it doesn't matter if my stomach's growling, if I'm hungry. We can't waste any more time here. We need to make sure they're OK," Eren snapped, as he started pulling on his clothes, which weren't just cleaner than they'd been since the Quartermaster had first handed them to him, they were softer too.

"Yeah, you can live without food, but since you're not used to it yet, the stomach cramps are going to be a bitch and they'll hamper you," Ymir warned. "Eat now, while you can, and we'll pack rations, and then we'll go. If they survived the cave in, they're likely fine, and if they didn't, it's too late anyway. But my money is on them surviving. I think they caved in the tunnel on purpose, that they're safe on the other side. We'll know for certain once we dig through Xi Gate. If the boats are gone, that means they took them, they're fine. Of course, we can also check for fresh feces and urine along the walkway, if you require additional proof," Ymir stated bluntly.

"How about we just bring rations and eat while we walk?" Mikasa suggested.

Eren could have kissed her for that, not that he needed an excuse to.

"Yeah. OK. I can be on board with that. Because sure, I know she's OK, but I wouldn't mind seeing Krista with my own eyes, just to be on the safe side," Ymir admitted.

Marcel swallowed a few times, Eren could see his throat moving. "You're leaving already?" Somehow he sounded like a lost, scared little boy, the way he said it, and Eren could see it was like a grappling hook through Ymir's heart.

"Don't, _pikkuveli. _This is hard enough for me as it is. I only just found you again," Ymir said, cupping Marcel's face in a tender gesture of affection Eren never would have thought Ymir was capable of, until the past couple of days.

"I'm sorry. I only meant... you'll come back soon?" he asked, clearly needing the reassurance.

"Of course. And I'll bring Krista with me, so I can stay," Ymir promised.

"Then lets get the three of you supplied. The sooner you leave, the sooner you'll return," Bertolt said confidently.

"_We're coming Armin. Please be OK,"_ Eren urged silently, as he finished dressing, eager to be on their way, to reunite with their missing friends.


	63. Chapter 63-Revelations and Ramifications

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

**A/N:  
I'm no longer going to be sticking to my schedule of posting every Thursday. I'll try to post as often as I can, but it will likely be once a month or so. Regardless, I will post as often as possible, and will definitely complete this story.  
**

Chapter 63 – Revelations and Ramifications

"Just because you're joining our coup doesn't necessarily mean your men are," Kenny Ackerman said, eyeing the various groups around Erwin suspiciously.

"You don't need to worry. To a man, they're loyal to both me and Levi. They won't object to us becoming co-rulers, not after the mission we just survived," Erwin replied, successfully keeping the bitterness out of his voice. They were loyal to Levi, at least, if not to him, and they'd already been planning a coup of their own.

Ackerman's eyes narrowed. "Survived is an interesting term. Arlert and Kirstein both claimed the Titan shifters, including Yeager, are dead, and that my niece Mikasa is as well. I find that impossible to believe. It might have been a convincing lie to the others, but I was watching Levi's face. He's always been far too sentimental, he gets too attached. They might be endangered, but they're not dead. There wasn't enough grief for that.

"I want to know what really happened to my niece and to Yeager. And whether Zoe Hange is the only Titan shifter among your current group, or if the others simply chose not to reveal themselves. Much as I despise shifters, I would almost be disappointed if there aren't any others. We thought Yeager had poor control, but he's an expert, compared to how utterly incompetent and useless Hange is," Ackerman scoffed.

"Zoe's fucking amazing," Levi snapped. "What you saw here wasn't how she normally is. She was pissed at Leonhart for trying to eat me. And you don't know dick about the other shifters. If it wasn't for them, we'd never have made it out of Shiganshina alive, or back here, after the Female Titan found and attacked us. Of course, now that we betrayed them again, they'd have every right to turn on us," he added bitterly.

Erwin froze. He hadn't thought about it in those terms, when he ordered the cave-in. He'd honestly only been thinking about Yeager and Ackerman, that he was potentially sacrificing two of his most valuable men, thanks to their shifter status. Braun and Hoover and Ymir hadn't figured into it, or the thought that he might be invalidating the unofficial treaty they'd so carefully constructed. He'd been obsessed with the radio, the books.

It wouldn't be the first time his obsession overrode his better judgment. The last time had netted him Levi, but had almost gotten both of them killed. It had gotten Levi's only two friends, his surrogate family Furlan Church and Isabel Magnolia, killed. Levi had never fully forgiven him for that; the fact that he loved him in spite of it was extremely telling, but he honestly didn't think their love could survive Levi losing anyone else, especially not Mikasa Ackerman. Whether or not they were cousins, the two of them clearly shared a near filial bond.

"Levi's right," Erwin admitted. "We made a treaty with the Titan shifters, one they had every reason to keep, but I made a tactical error. They and Mikasa Ackerman volunteered to cover our escape, but when we caved-in the tunnel behind us, to keep the Female Titan at bay, we effectively isolated the others as well. Braun, Hoover, Yeager and Ackerman were all alive the last we saw them. That's all we can tell you," Erwin admitted. He had noticed that Levi didn't mention Mikasa Ackerman was now a shifter as well, and he found no reason to enlighten Kenny Ackerman as to that fact either.

"And Ymir? Historia Reiss is with you, which means Ymir must be with them, correct?" Ackerman pressed.

"You mean your agent?" Erwin challenged.

"We all have our agents, Reiss, though admittedly, your number of sycophants is second only to that of Pixis," Ackerman conceded. "The Corps might be miniscule in comparison to the Garrison or even the Military Police, but I'm well aware that you have far more supporters than that."

"Is the Old Man still alive?" Levi demanded.

"Pixis was alive the last we heard. That's all we can tell you," Ackerman echoed Erwin's words, his tone not mocking, as Erwin and likely Levi had expected, but matter-of-fact.

"And Hypatia?" Levi demanded.

"Also alive. I hear she's quite a beauty. I hope you're prepared for what that means, in the event she actually lives long enough for us to rescue her," Ackerman warned.

The look of hatred, of fury, on Levi's face was chilling. "I'll castrate anyone who touches her," he promised.

"It's a pity you aren't as loyal to all your relatives, son," Ackerman said mildly.

"Neither you nor Franz deserves my loyalty," Levi snapped, stunning Erwin. It sounded like, for the first time, Levi was actually entertaining the possibility that Kenny Ackerman might be his father.

Erwin tensed as men started streaming into the cavern, soldiers, cursing himself for not setting up perimeter guards.

"They're Dok's men, our medics. Let them through!" Ackerman bellowed loudly, his voice echoing across the cavern, effectively aborting the attack run Bauer, Anders and Blouse had just initiated.

Erwin frowned as a man who was definitely not one of Dok's reported to Ackerman, subtly but noticeably signaling him to break away from the rest of them, clearly so he could speak privately.

"You can report in front of Commander Erwin, Michaels. He's joined our coup, and if it's to succeed, we need to show him we have nothing to hide," Ackerman assured him.

Erwin was surprised and more than a little troubled when Levi didn't openly scoff in derision at the ludicrous statement. The day Kenny Ackerman laid all his cards on the table was the day the house they played cards in burnt to the ground with them inside.

The man nodded. "Yes sir. Once we received your message, the signal, we initiated Plan D. After the way we'd been socializing with them, sharing smuggled drinks and delicacies, they never saw it coming. All 56 Garrison soldiers are dead, and we only lost two men. Unfortunately, a few of them were better fighters than we expected. We control all four passageways to the surface."

Levi stiffened, clearly appalled, and Erwin shared the sentiment.

"Relax. They were all Leonhart's handpicked men, the worst of the Garrison, and that's saying something. Other than Pixis's Special Forces, they're all from the bottom of a very deep barrel," Ackerman stated wryly.

Two medics headed for Dok and the rest towards the other injured. "You're to treat in order of severity of injury, not branch of service. We've already triaged them for you," Ackerman ordered.

"Yes sir!" the others called.

"I need to know what Plans A through C are, and E and onward, if there are more than four, and I assume there are," Erwin challenged.

"I'll fill you in on all our plans, of course, just as you'll let me see what's in that crate and your packs, and tell us all about your encounter with the shifters and that treaty my son mentioned," Ackerman rebutted.

Considering how badly outnumbered they were, how deadly Ackerman could be when denied what he wanted, and given the price Nile and the others had already paid, Erwin knew he had no choice but to agree, though he hated it.

"Do you know where Zacharius is?" Erwin challenged. If Nile trusted Ackerman enough for him to know that Camelot was his great grandfather's house, the place where he'd spent the only happy years of his childhood, then he'd risk showing him the books and radio.

Ackerman nodded. "Your mother's grandfather's house. We'll be going there next. Marie and the children are with him, and Nile needs to join them."

"No. I started this with Pixis. The two of us are going to end it together," Nile argued weakly.

"No, Nile. You're part in this is done. You've secured yourself an honored place in our future history books, the ones you're going to live to read proudly to your grandchildren, and perhaps help write. You can entrust Reiss here to aid me and Pixis with the rest," Ackerman argued.

"You're forgetting who outranks whom," Nile argued.

"Frankly, Nile, you're in no condition to argue the point. Willingly or not, you're going to convalesce with your adoring wife and children. If I have to hogtie you in anti-shifter chains and carry you there, I will, but a number of your men will die unnecessarily trying to prevent me," Ackerman argued.

"No! My men aren't expendable, damn you! If I let you or Edward lead them, I'll be able to count the survivors on the fingers of my single remaining hand, and I just lost most of my top officers," Ackerman accused.

"I'll lead them. And protect them as if they were my own," Levi unexpectedly offered. "Promote whoever you trust with their lives to officers, and I'll make sure Erwin doesn't lead them to slaughter. I can't guarantee they'll all survive, or that even most of them will, considering we're staging a revolution, but although you despise me, you know how competent I am and how highly I value my men. I'll protect them to the best of my ability, the way you protected me."

Nile stared at Levi intently, and then, to Erwin's astonishment he nodded, and with his shaking right hand clumsily loosened the bolo tie from around his neck and then lifted it over his head. "McCafferty, I'm hereby granting you a battlefield promotion from Captain to Acting Commander, which means you now outrank Lieutenant Commander Kenny Ackerman. Domingo, if Acting Commander McCafferty falls in battle, you're to succeed him. But the both of you are to defer to Captain Levi's orders, in situations where all three branches need to work in concert. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" Domingo said, snapping to attention.

"You can count on us, sir," McCafferty swore.

"Kenny?" Nile challenged, using his first name.

"I won't make a power play against you, Nile, and certainly not against my own son. I know you don't see it or believe me or reciprocate, but I honestly consider you a friend. As endangered species go, it is a rare and deadly position," Ackerman said bitterly, sounding shockingly like Levi. "I truly regret that it came to this. But at least I haven't managed to leave another widow in my wake."

He turned to Erwin. "I want to see inside that crate, and your packs, now, before we leave here," Ackerman challenged.

"You can look, but we're maintaining possession. As you surmised, it's the radio, as well as a number of books, including the radio operator's Message Logs, and Dr. Yeager's personal journals."

"And the identity of the radio operator?" Ackerman demanded.

"I thought you would have known: Yuri Ackerman, your brother's wife," Erwin stated truthfully.

He nodded. "Mikasa's mother. Yes, I knew. I just wasn't sure whether you'd figured it out. I was, in fact, her conduit to the King, once she became afraid enough to flee from him," Ackerman claimed.

"Bullshit! If you'd known where they were, you'd have gone after them," Levi snarled.

"Yes, I would have. Because I knew they weren't as safe as they thought they were, and I didn't want to lose the only family I had left. My fears were, unfortunately, grounded," Ackerman claimed.

"If you're being so open, how about you tell me why you let my mother be murdered?" Levi demanded.

Erwin froze, mid-breath, as the temperature within the cave seemed to plummet, Ackerman tensing and transfixing Levi with an icy stare. Levi looked ready to leap at him, to protect himself, when unexpectedly, Ackerman suddenly no longer looked quite as deadly.

"To use your vernacular, I fucked up," Ackerman admitted sardonically.

Erwin was shocked at the admission for a split second, until he realized it was no doubt part of an elaborate lie, or a plan to gain sympathy.

Ackerman continued unperturbed by the looks of disbelief he was receiving. Levi's face was an inscrutable mask.

"Once I found out where she'd disappeared to, the thought of Franz touching her… she was my _wife_. But she'd wanted a fairytale life, and she used her looks to get one. Unfortunately she forgot most fairytales are filled with lying, greedy, self-centered people and end in tragedy. I was trying to get her away from Franz, because if there ever was a villainous, notorious, bloated, corrupt King, it was him.

"Franz honestly thought you were his son, until he saw me: the resemblance between the two of us, much as you deny it, is unmistakable. I'd always worked from the shadows, before that, there are no existing photographs of me and he'd never seen me up close, until that night. If he hadn't been surrounded by his personal bodyguards, his pet Titans, the Reiss family, I'd have used something other than words.

"I told him the truth, that Melena was my wife, and you were my son, and I was taking you both back. And he agreed to it. He wanted nothing more to do with either of you, once he found out you weren't his, that Melena had lied to him, that she was pregnant when she'd seduced him, that she was married.

"I wanted to take you both immediately, but it was late at night, there was a freezing rainstorm outside, and you were young, and I was going to be uprooting you from the only life you'd ever known, and you'd have hated me for it. Melena begged me not to upset you, so I waited. And while I was gone, that malicious bitch, Greta Reiss, had you both dragged out of your house onto the street, with nothing but the clothes on your backs.

"As soon as I found you gone but confirmed you both hadn't been killed outright, I knew Melena would look for me in the Underground. She knew where to find me. So I went to find her. I was minutes too late to save her. But you were still alive. I saved you. You were my son, but it was your fault she was dead. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have retrieved her that night. If it hadn't been for her being pregnant with you, she never would have left me in the first place, but she wanted to raise you in the sunlight, instead of the shadows."

Levi stared at him numbly. "All the shit you put me through, all those years is because you blamed me for her death? Hell, you blamed me for being born. But once you got your hooks in you wouldn't let me leave. I tried to escape dozens of times. You nearly beat me to death each attempt. And what, now you want my sympathy, my understanding, for being a vicious, ruthless, soulless, loveless asshole?"

Before Erwin could even move, Ackerman was at Hange's throat with a knife. It would have been at Levi's mouth, but she'd stepped between the two of them and was taller.

"Ackerman!" Nile snapped, an infuriated, single word command, as he struggled to rise, paling dangerously and gasping.

Levi had flinched backwards, every muscle tense, eyes darting everywhere, the knife Liam had returned to him in his hand.

"Keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll remove it," Ackerman said coldly, showing clearly that no matter the sob story, the thin veneer of civility, he was still the serial killing psychopath who had made Levi's life a living hell. He'd just actively attacked him with at least the threat if not the outright intent of maiming him. Which meant he needed to die, the sooner the better. Unfortunately, for now, they were in no position to attempt to get rid of the threat. They had a number of injured, and they needed every ally they could get. They couldn't afford alienating or turning any of the Military Police against them.

Erwin drew Levi aside, and Nile called Ackerman to him, clearly on the same wavelength regarding separating the two, for the good of their joint goal.

"Help me figure out who's going to stay behind with Nile and the other wounded, and who's good to come with us," Erwin urged Levi.

Levi nodded wordlessly, obviously wound tight from what had just happened, not to mention all he'd just heard.

To Erwin's surprise, Levi went right up to the medics. "We need to know which of our men, the Scouts, can be battle ready and who needs to stay with Commander Dok, and the other wounded MPs."

"There are a number of injuries, but they're Scouts, so what would stop a normal soldier won't prevent most of them from going with you and fighting, except for three of them: O'Seanessey, Arlert and Kirstein."

Erwin saw Levi tense, and was about to prod for more detail, when the medic continued.

"O'Seanessey actually will be fine, as soon as you can get him a replacement prosthetic leg. But both Arlert's arms are either severely sprained or have hairline fractures. And Kirstein's the same, except it's both arms and both legs, and he definitely has some bruised, possibly cracked, ribs. Arlert can walk out of here, once we splint his arms, but Kirstein we're going to have to carry. I've already told them."

"But they'll recover fully?" Levi demanded.

"Yes, with time and rest," the medic assured him.

"Alright. Good. The ones who are mobile need to grab the packs and crate and form up with the MPs," Levi stated, and Erwin agreed. Ackerman had forfeited whatever right he'd had to see the radio and books, even if they had belonged to his brother and sister-in-law.

0 0 0

Armin hated that he was on the very short list of those too injured to fight. Even Sasha and Connie were alright, thanks to being caught by the others, when they were dashed to the ground. But he was relieved that Jean was on the list too, that at least they'd be together, especially because Eren and Mikasa…

"The pain's worse?" Jeans asked in concern, from where he lay.

"Not in my arms, no," Armin denied truthfully.

"Oh. Eren and Mikasa?" Jean accurately surmised.

Armin nodded, swallowing hard.

"They'd show up, right when we most need them and least expect them," Jean assured him confidently.

"But Annie…." Armin said, not wanting to think about what might have happened.

"Yeah, well Mikasa's even more of a badass now than before right?" Jean reminded him, speaking really softly, so Ackerman couldn't hear, even though he didn't mention anything about her being a shifter. Ackerman would likely pounce on the smallest hint that something was different about her.

"Yeah, I guess," Armin reluctantly agreed, swallowing hard again.

Jean sighed. "But you think you're not, right? That they're leaving you in the dust? Armin, you and Bauer and Krista just took down that freaking Beast Titan. That thing killed dozens of MPs, he actually **ate** you, but you cut yourself free, right through his face. **No one's** as badass as you, not even Captain Levi," Jean stated confidently.

Armin thought Jean was just humoring him, until he looked into his eyes and saw the naked admiration shining in them, the pride, the awe.

"You actually believe that," Armin said in wonder.

"Damn straight I do. Because it's true," Jean agreed with a nod, hissing in pain, clearly regretting the movement, if not the sentiment.

"I'm happy you see me like that, even if I don't. But… what if I'm not human anymore? What if that whole blood thing works when they're in Titan form too? Leonhart's blood was all over me, even in my mouth, and I have a number of cuts and… what if I get swallowed again, and change, like Hange and…" his eyes slid to Ackerman, and he didn't risk mentioning Mikasa's name. "Would you still want me if I was a Titan shifter?"

Jean's eyes widened at the possibility, and Armin's heart hammered and his stomach sank to his feet. "It's OK. I understand you-," Armin said, but was cut off mid-sentence.

The last thing he expected was a kiss, especially not one so tender. Jean somehow managed to lean up and reassure him with his lips without ever saying a word, until finally, almost breathlessly, he broke the kiss.

"Armin, I love you. All it would matter to me is that you'd be that much more likely to survive our next battle. Maybe even the entire rest of the war. Something that makes you to all intents and purposes practically immortal? Sign me up for bodily fluids, or blood, because I want to be right there beside you, for as long as we get to have."

Armin's eyes widened in shock and then his lips creased in a mischievous smile. "In that case, I personally recommend bodily fluids. Lots and lots of them, to make sure it works."

Jean gave a startled laugh and actually blushed. "I guess we'll have to try to find a little privacy in Camelot, then. And we'll need to get a little creative with our positions, considering," Jean said, looking ruefully at himself.

"I don't think you need to worry about that. I can move around, at least, and I think 69 is my new favorite number," Armin said with mock solemnity, and then he grinned.

"And here I was worried about both of you," Sasha said, in relief, as she and Connie approached. They were both moving more slowly and carefully than usual, Connie noticeably limping, but they'd been within earshot to hear Armin's blatant propositioning.

"I say we put them both on the active roster," Connie agreed.

Jean started to sit, and then hissed in pain.

"I was kidding, you idiot. Lie back down. You and Armin have both more than earned a break. And besides, from what we heard, you'll be with Dok and Zacharius and some other high level rebels. Who knows what could happen, who might discover you. You need to be ready for trouble," Connie warned.

"We'll do our best. Not that we'd be much good in a fight right now," Jean agreed ruefully.

"I think the Commander's going to leave the crate and packs with you two," Sasha said, not mentioning the radio and books by name.

"We'll keep them as safe as we can. We know how important they are. Especially to Eren and Mikasa," Armin agreed, and then he winced, because he'd actually managed to not think about them being missing for a whole minute or two.

"They'll come back, Armin. They're your family. Nothing could ever keep them away," Sasha assured him.

"Alright, Scouts, MPs, we're moving out!" Levi called out loudly.

"You'd better go," Armin said reluctantly.

"Yeah. Here come your stretcher bearer's Jean," Sasha agreed.

Armin felt bad for Jean as they headed out of the cavern. At least he was able to walk out through the back opening onto the top of the wall overlooking Sina under his own power. He drank in the sunlight, relieved to see it again, after being underground for so long. But the affect on Hange was remarkable. She looked like a wilted plant suddenly given water and sunlight: her skin all but glowed almost immediately, and her stride became much more firm.

They'd be rappelling down the steep wall, and then heading out into Sina, though none of them were sure yet exactly what they were walking into. They only knew they were headed for chaos.


	64. Chapter 64 - No Longer Camelot

**These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.**

**A/N:  
As outlined last chapter, I'm now posting once a month, instead of once a week. Here's my August chapter. I hope it was worth the wait!  
**

**I'm eager to hear from all my wonderful reviewers: 18Gs, Anilover, ****AutumnMobile12, bobbyneko, Comix and Co, Cranberryfriend, DarkFireNyx, Druglord2-0, Evilkitten3, ExcessiveDonkey, fanficfanatic, Hawkward Chicken, haylin, JasonVUK, i Sniped the Chief, , Katherina Jaeger, Kiri Natsuma-Tetsuya, kittylover195678, localishdreamer, Magyk-Foal 1, M1NDTH3G8P, Mistress AfriCoffee, Morgoth II, MukuroLeonhart, My-Little-Poison-Secret, ObdurateSinner, omwhwbd, Scordatura, Skydollie, Stark01, ThatGeekyG1rl, WhiteXTrainer00, ****YaraCupli4ever, Yatsuhiro Ryko and all my guest reviewers. I really miss you guys! You're the ones who keep me going.**

I'd l

**ove to hear from some of the rest of you as well! Special thanks to ****OakwoodOuroboros, who has been reading and prolifically reviewing and private messaging me on **_**Outmaneuvered**_**. You started my creative juices flowing again, with your comments about Blackberry. And thanks again for your wonderful offer to translate my Soul Eater story, **_**Deception at Death's Door**_**, into French!**

Chapter 64 – No Longer Camelot

Erwin risked glancing out from behind the heavy drape over the carriage window at the painfully familiar scenery, seeing the gristmill he'd played in, a lifetime ago, amidst acres of gently swaying wheat. He had never actually expected to travel this particular road again, to see the home he'd spent the best years of his childhood in. The only good years of his childhood.

He was grateful that Duke Reiss's estate was so near the King's palace, so he could travel with Nile and the other wounded, and see them safely ensconced in his great-grandfather's house. He wasn't looking forward to seeing Marie, considering what had happened to Nile, but at the same time, he needed to face her.

Erwin was still shocked at how ridiculously easy it had been to leave the Underground and enter the enclosed carriages waiting topside for them, though sadly, a few of them had become hearses, carrying the bodies of the fallen MPs. Kenny Ackerman and Nile had apparently planned flawlessly, as well as brutally. _56 dead Garrison soldiers, as well as the MPs we lost._ _How many more casualties will there be, before our coup is done?_

"Stop brooding," Levi chastised. "Eren and Mikasa aren't dead."

Erwin was surprised and disappointed that Levi had realized he was upset, but not the reason for it.

"Oh. It's those 56 men and the MPs we lost. Put them in the acceptable losses column, along with as many others as we need to kill, and move the fuck on," Levi demanded.

Erwin shook his head, bemused. "If you were a shifter, your special Titan ability would be to read minds."

"Fuck no. I'd be Bastet, remember?" Levi claimed with a smirk. "Half black cat, half man. I'd scare the fuck out of everyone, except for Zoe, who'd pet me and want to take me home with her. I've been thinking about that a lot, since seeing Leonhart: whether there are other Beast Titans out there."

"You're right: you turn into a werecat, even if you are a building sized one, and you're coming home with me," Hange piped up from beside him. "By the way, I think I figured out why he was so different. Inhuman. We know there were successful canine trials. What if there was a primate trial, too? What if that's how Leonhart was turned? Maybe they mixed some blood or tissue accidentally, or even intentionally, to try to give the humans they were experimenting on an even bigger edge. You know: the loyalty and ferocity of a dog, the strength and viciousness of a chimpanzee, that kind of thing."

"What the fuck is a chimpanzee? If I didn't know you better, I'd say you made that name up," Levi accused.

Hange happily spent the next half hour of their journey regaling them with information about animals Erwin and Levi and the others traveling with them in their carriage had never heard about before, things called monkeys and apes, which were apparently somewhat similar to men, but hairier, more agile, stronger. Erwin hoped they wouldn't ever run into another Beast Titan, simian, canine, feline, or any other kind.

As Hange spoke, Erwin periodically checked out the window and saw the wheat fields give way to neat rows of beans, and then to corn. His father might be dead, but the man's verdant estate was still thriving. And now, all this bounty was his. He'd somehow suddenly become one of the wealthy landowning nobles he'd detested; although if the King had his way, he'd never survive to claim the title of Duke, let alone King.

Erwin was grateful for the distraction as Hange began telling them about werecats and other mythical lycanthropes. He was relieved to hear her spouting one of her typical scientific or in this case, pseudoscientific rants: turning into a Titan shifter clearly hadn't altered her personality. He hadn't known Yeager before he was a shifter, so he had no data points as to what effect it might have had on the young man.

He was grateful that so far, at least, they hadn't run into any trouble: anyone trying to arrest them, or kill them. The more of a surprise attack their coup could be, the more likely it was to be a relatively bloodless one, and they were now less than half a kilometer from his great-grandfather's house.

Erwin silently cursed as, even as he was thinking they might reach the house safely, he saw half a dozen bowmen in Garrison uniforms emerge from the cornfield, with bows raised and arrows nocked. He sprang across the wagon and looked out the opposite window, and saw more of the same, which meant there were likely dozens, if not hundreds of men surrounding their wagons. They'd been successfully outmaneuvered, ambushed. Their coup was about to end before it had truly begun, though perhaps some of them might be able to escape into the cornfields that had so effectively concealed their attackers.

"Surrender peacefully and you will not be harmed. If you attack us, you leave us no choice but to slay you all," a loud, accented voice called out clearly.

"Lieutenant Konstantinos? Nikolaos, hold your fire! It's me, Armin Arlert, and the Commander, and Captain Levi and everyone! And the MPs who are with us, we're not their prisoners or anything, they're helping us," Armin called out.

Erwin winced, wishing Arlert hadn't betrayed so much.

"Hold your fire! Armin! You have come back safely! The drivers, they are not in uniform. We did not realize," Konstantinos claimed, to Erwin's relief.

"Careful! Both his arms are broken," Blouse cautioned. They'd apparently left their carriage.

"You were injured on your mission?" the Lieutenant asked in concern.

Levi opened the door to their carriage, and Erwin followed him out. Arlert was indeed outside his carriage, beside Blouse. She must have helped him down the steps, since he didn't have the use of his arms, and clearly the exuberant Lieutenant had tried to either hug Arlert or clap him on the shoulders.

The Lieutenant turned at the sound of them exiting their carriage. "Captain Levi! Commander Erwin! It is good to see you! A relief, yes? We cannot believe you come here, that you are safe, with so much that has happened. We feared if you came back at all, you would go to the Garrison for your horses, or to the Corps, and be arrested. You have heard of the warrants and the arrests and that we have all been discharged, yes?" the man said, a look of indignant shame on his face.

"Why are you and the others wearing Garrison uniforms?" Erwin challenged, recognizing a few of the other men with Konstantinos, now, including the man's lover, Sergeant Costas Darionosis, all of them part of the 200 men Pixis had given them. He still didn't know all the new men on sight, but these few he recognized.

"They are our old uniforms. So if Garrison soldiers or MPs come, they not immediately realize we are Scouts, yes? Or that we are no longer soldiers," he claimed.

"Why are so many of you hiding in a cornfield on Duke Reiss's estate?" Levi asked.

"To catch anyone who comes to try to find Camelot. And to redirect anyone who should be coming, so they do not panic when they see the house is empty. There are far too many now, so we have taken over the mansion, and the rest of us who do not fit are camped outside it," Kostantinos claimed.

"What do you mean, too many? Are the rest of the Scouts here, the ones who were discharged?" Erwin asked, both intrigued and eager. He wouldn't mind having a couple of hundred additional men at his back, when they went to confront the King, who might well be guarded by both Garrison and Military Police – especially men who had been trained in Pixis's Special Forces.

"Scouts and Garrison both. All the Special Forces have gathered here, along with the people who escaped arrest and those who were arrested, the ones who we freed, and others, who escaped," Konstantinos reported proudly.

"You've freed prisoners? Pixis, did you free the Old Man? And Hypatia. Did you know they took them?" Levi demanded.

Erwin was shocked when the man actually grinned, a look of devilish satisfaction on his face. "The only reason Commander Pixis allowed himself to be captured was because they threatened to kill his cousin Hypatia if he did not surrender. Also, he was hoping they would take him to wherever she was being held, so he could rescue her. The fools underestimated them both. They believed her to be only a weak little girl, a pretty face, and him to be the foolish, doddering drunkard he pretends to be.

"The ones who imprisoned her weren't the same ones who fought her, or they would have known better. They thought she had already been disarmed. They did not find four of her eight knives, or the two garrotes, which were hidden in her belt and jewelry and hair. They did not find the lockpicks in the cuffs of the Commander's shirt sleeves and jacket either, or the garrotes, or the knives in the toes of his boots. By the time they brought him in, she and her men were already gone, and many of the guards were dead. When Commander Pixis, he saw, he escaped immediately, leaving more bodies behind. They are all at the mansion, with the others," Konstantinos assured him.

"Thank fuck," Levi said irreverently. "How many of her men survived?"

Konstantinos looked grim. "I heard that there were many before. I do not know how many. But with her, there were only seven, and three of them are badly wounded."

"Shit. What about the books?" Levi asked.

Konstantinos frowned. "The books, they took elsewhere. They planned to burn them with the Librarian, but they might have burned them now, out of anger, or might use them to lure her back. But the Commander, he will not let her – he watches her, like guard dog. He is fierce and stubborn. The look on his face, when he hears they took her, killed her men, stole the books, destroyed the building. Never have I seen such rage, such hatred on his face, such grief, except when he sees Randall's body. I would not want to be these men, who have hurt the ones he loves."

If Reiner Braun had survived the recent battle with the Female Titan, they'd need to make sure he stayed well away from Pixis, Erwin thought grimly.

"Have any of you been killed? The Scouts, or the Garrison Special Forces? Are Stephanos and Theorides alright?" Levi asked anxiously.

"Thankfully there have been no casualties. Commander Pixis, he ordered us all not to fight and he surrendered, to prevent bloodshed, to avoid more loss. All 992 of us are here, the Olympians, Nachtwolven, Banshees, Medusans, Nightwitches, everyone. It is good you come today. Now that we have all gathered here, we plan something big. But there is big obstacle we first must overcome," he claimed cryptically.

992 not 1,000, because of the three Olympians and four Nachtwolven who died in the poisoning, and Randall, who was tortured to death by Reiner Braun. They planned something big, but there was something big to overcome. Did he mean killing the King, and needing to defeat the Beast Titan to do it? He wouldn't ask not here, out in the open. He chose something safer. "We were told Mike Zacharius and Moblit Berner are here as well?" Erwin asked anxiously.

"They are here. Come, Costas and I will take you to them. If we lead you, they do not think you have killed us, yes? It is safer," Konstantinos claimed. "Lambrakis, you are in command here."

"Yes sir!" one of the nearby soldiers replied.

Erwin wished the men could ride inside with them. There was a lot more he wanted to ask. But they needed to be visible, and he knew Levi wouldn't let him be. There could be traitors or assassins nearby. He wouldn't take foolish chances.

He climbed back into his carriage, Levi following him.

"She's free. Safe. But only seven men, and she lost all the books. She's going to be furious. Grief-stricken," Levi said anxiously.

"She's still alive. And my father had a rather extensive library. I'm certain she's found it. And at least her surviving men are with her. That will have to be enough," Erwin stated.

He was gratified that seemed to appease Levi. He knew how worried he was about his cousin. They still didn't know if she'd been hurt, or how badly, either in the fighting, or if the men guarding her had taken liberties with her, forced themselves on her. They might have been too scared of Leonhart to attempt it, or conversely, if he condoned it, eager to please him as well as pleasure themselves. They'd know soon enough.

The ride to the mansion seemed interminable, though Erwin spent most of it looking out the window, past the curtain. He still wasn't ready to advertise his presence by pulling it aside completely. The fields gave way to a stone fence, surrounding a carefully manicured lawn, and sculpted bushes, but then abruptly changed to dozens, hundreds of tents, an armed camp, like something out of the many military history books he'd read.

He heard Konstantinos and Darionosis call out a number of times, apparently to different sentries, and at least one galloping horse passed them. He was certain their arrival was being announced. It was fortunate his father's estate – his estate – was so prosperous, though such a large force had likely already drained the pantry long past its limits. He wondered if they'd started butchering the cattle, pigs, goats and chickens kept on nearby farms. He'd need to make sure the farmers were paid for everything they took, though he was certain a man like Pixis wouldn't leave them destitute, eaten out of house and home.

He was relieved when the carriages finally drew to a stop in front of the mansion. He opened the door and stepped down and was almost bowled over by a towering figure. He would have been alarmed at the ambush, but he could hear the man's nose sniffing wildly in his hair, and recognized his distinctively subtle scent. "Mike," he whispered relieved, as he embraced the man who was like a brother to him.

"Erwin," he replied, with the contented sigh of a dog whose master has been long overdue and finally come home.

Erwin stiffened and almost yelped as needles unexpectedly bit into the back of his thigh, twisting around, ready to swat whatever had attacked him, when Levi blocked his arm. He saw why a moment later, when Levi pulled a familiar tiny black kitten off him and held it up to his nose for inspection, and then cuddled it. Apparently Blackberry had come along as well. And then a distinctive strawberry blonde cat curled around Levi's legs, demanding equal attention, limping not because it was missing a leg, but because one of its three remaining legs was splinted. Erwin shouldn't have been surprised to see Ichigo as well: with Pewter dead and Levi gone, there would have been nothing to keep the sociopathic cat at their base. But such a sign of trust and affection was exceptionally rare for him. Mike or Berner must have brought the two cats with them, when they fled their base.

"How are the ribs?" Erwin asked Mike.

"How's the head?" Mike simultaneously asked.

For the first time in a long time, Erwin felt like smiling.

"Better," they responded in synch.

"Christ you two, get a room," Hange yelled, grinning like a maniac.

"Zoe!" a voice yelled eagerly.

"Moblit!" Hange cried happily, redirecting her patented, insane grin to her assistant, as she hugged him, clapping him twice on the back and letting him go, a man's hug, which was for the best, since Kearney, who was still wearing his sword arms, was watching them with unconcealed interest.

"Let's get you all inside," Berner said. "Do you have any injured?"

"We have three, Nile Dok, Armin Arlert and Jean Kirstein. Others as well, but less serious," Erwin stated.

"Commander Dok is seriously injured?" Berner asked in concern.

"He'll need to be carried inside. I was told his wife Marie and the children are here. I need to see Marie, before she sees him," Erwin said, feeling the bite of guilt, both for the terrible things he'd said to her all those years ago and the cold shoulder he'd given her and Nile since, as well as because Nile had been maimed saving Levi.

Erwin saw Levi hand Ichigo and Blackberry to Blouse, who was hovering by Arlert, since Arlert couldn't hold the cats himself. Then Levi came back over to him, apparently to provide the moral support he desperately needed.

"Berner, you see to transporting the wounded. I'll take you to Marie," Mike volunteered, and then he looked unusually flustered, and shifted uncomfortably. "If that's alright. Sorry. I've gotten used to being in charge of the Corps, at least, our contingent here. Captain Stephanos was adamant that we follow the chain of command, that I be in charge."

Erwin smiled reassuringly and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's fine."

Erwin was concerned Marie hadn't come out to meet them. Mike led him to what had been the ballroom, when he lived in his father's house. It had been converted to a Mess Hall, and she was supervising food distribution like a seasoned sergeant. It was early for dinner, but Erwin realized that with so many men, they'd need to eat in shifts. The kitchen likely never closed, moving from breakfast shifts, to lunch, to dinner, with the night spent baking bread for the following day.

He wasn't sure how to address her, he was still debating what to say when she saw the men's attention shifting to him and Mike and Levi, and he spotted Marie, as she looked over to see what had managed to take their minds off their stomachs.

"Erwin!" Marie's smile was as warm and welcoming as always, and he felt guiltier than ever for having alienated her for so long. And damn it, he hadn't realized she was expecting again. She must have been at least seven months along. He hoped the shock of seeing Nile wouldn't cause her to go into labor prematurely.

"Uncle Erwin?" a young voice piped up and he winced as he saw Gawain. He was nine years old, and the spitting image of his father. He looked around, but didn't see the other children. Kay, was seven, and looked like his mother. Galahad was five, and had the best features of both. Tristan and Isolde, the twins, were night and day: Tristan looked just like his mother, and Isolde, like her father.

All those years he'd thought they were taunting him, naming their children after the Knights of the Round Table, but he belatedly realized they were hard at work providing his future knights. He didn't deserve their friendship, not after scorning them for so long for the perceived insult and injury, when all they were guilty of was trying to see him happy.

"Now, now, we'll have none of that. I won't see you brooding," she scolded. "It's so good to see you! Nile and I were so worried about you, when we heard about your last mission, and everything that's happened since," she said, as held her arms open, offering a hug.

He embraced her gently, painfully aware of the baby. He startled as he felt a small thump against his groin, and immediately drew back.

"Little Morgause is quite the accomplished fighter already. You're not the first she's kicked in the family jewels. She's shown Nile who's boss a number of times," Marie teased, her green eyes sparkling with mischief. "Speaking of her father, where is that man of mine? Did he come with… Erwin? What's wrong? Why…? No. Oh no," she whispered, all the color instantly leaching from her face, her hand going to her mouth in horror.

"Mother, what's wrong? Is it the baby?" Gawain asked anxiously, trying to push between them.

Erwin pushed the boy gently but firmly aside and put his hands under Marie's arms, to support her, in case she fainted. He was relieved when Levi darted away and returned with a chair, which Erwin gently navigated her into.

"Lady Dok?" a few of the nearby men asked in concern.

"Medic!" another yelled.

"Marie, listen to me. Nile isn't dead and he's not dying. He's been injured, it's serious, but he's alive. He's with us. I came to take you to him. I was trying not to upset you, and I didn't know you were expecting again, and… I'm sorry. Please, just breathe, try to calm down," he urged.

He was grateful when two men with medic insignia ran up.

Levi yanked out a second chair and leapt up onto it. "She's going to be fine. Everyone go back to your lines and tables and keep eating. Don't give Lady Dok something else to worry about," he ordered.

The men were muttering in concern but followed his orders, thankfully. Erwin was glad that Gawain seemed to be the only one of the children here. He'd probably been helping his mother, while Kay watched his younger siblings in the Nursery. Gawain was a solemn, responsible lad, polite, well mannered and respectful. And he idolized his father, the way Erwin had idolized his own mother. He was standing protectively at her shoulder, watching the medics, patting her and saying calming things, although Erwin could see he looked as afraid as she was.

"What happened? Tell me what's happened," she demanded, between deep, measured breaths.

"I told you all you need to know for now. He's alive, he's not going to die, he's conscious, and he's with us, here. He's going to dance at Isolde's wedding, and bounce her children on his knee," Erwin assured her.

Levi materialized at her side, with a tray containing a glass of water and another of juice, and a plate of crackers, which he set on the chair he'd stood on earlier.

"I'm alright now," she assured the medics.

"You seem to be. Your pulse is slowing and you've gotten some color back. No contractions?" he asked.

"No. Trust me, I've been through this enough times to know what labor pains feel like," she assured him, forcing a smile she obviously didn't feel.

"Then it's safe to drink something, either water or juice, but the juice would be better. And you should try to eat some of the crackers," he urged.

"Of course. And then I'm going to see my husband," she challenged, looking at Erwin, her eyes lighting with the familiar gleam of battle, one of the things that had first drawn him to her.

"Of course," Erwin agreed. He wouldn't be able to keep her from seeing Nile, not without physically restraining her, which he wasn't about to do.

She turned to Levi. "Thank you, Captain Levi, for the refreshments," she said politely, as if he'd invited her to his house for afternoon tea.

"I'm sorry I've been such a dick to both of you. I thought you'd betrayed Erwin. We understand now, why you married Dok instead. Your husband was injured saving my life. He's entrusted his soldiers to me. Anything you and your children need, I'll get it for you," Levi promised, staring intently at her.

Gawain glared at him, likely for cursing in front of her, and accusing her of betraying him.

Her eyes widened. "Thank you for that, Captain. I think I need to see my husband immediately," she insisted, standing.

Erwin looked from her, to Gawain, and back to her, shaking his head slightly and her eyes widened in understanding. "Gawain, why don't you take dessert to Kay and the little ones? I'll be up shortly," she said.

"Something's wrong. I want to see father. I won't yell or cry, no matter how badly he's hurt," Gawain said stubbornly.

"Gawain, I need you to be with Kay and the others right now. You'll see your father soon, I promise, but I need to see him alone first," she said gently, hugging him.

"Your father asked to see your mother first, in private, before he saw the rest of you. You don't want to disobey your father, do you, Gawain? He's told me and Erwin how proud he is of you," Levi unexpectedly urged, lying through his teeth.

"Father said…? No, of course not. I'll be in the Nursery, mother," Gawain said stoically.

"Don't forget to bring the cookies and milk upstairs, sweetheart," Marie said, looking relieved.

"Of course," he said, and then he headed off.

She made sure he was out of earshot. "Tell me what to expect. Was he captured and tortured? Has he been blinded? Paralyzed? I know it must be bad, or he wouldn't have sent you in to see me, and you'd have let Gawain see him with me."

Erwin sighed. "He wasn't suspected or caught. But there was a battle. He… he lost his arm," Erwin reluctantly admitted, telling her directly. This wasn't something he could sugarcoat.

"One arm? Right or left?" she demanded.

"Left, his dominant hand, the elbow and forearm," Erwin supplied.

"How many men did he lose?" she asked.

"A number of them. Most of his officers. We don't know their names, I'm afraid. Two of the ones who survived were Captains McCafferty and Domingo. McCafferty received a battlefield promotion from him to Acting Commander, with Domingo to succeed him, if he falls," Erwin stated.

Her eyes widened. "Lieutenant Commander Ackerman was killed?"

"No. That fuc… that jerk is still alive," Levi amended. "Your husband promoted McCafferty over him, and he allowed it, for his own reasons. He's here, with us, so it's best to speak discretely," Levi cautioned.

"I see," she said solemnly. From the calculating look in her eye, Nile had apparently warned Marie about Ackerman. Or she'd figured some things out for herself.

Erwin belatedly realized he didn't know where Nile would be, but fortunately, Mike, who had disappeared from his side for a few moments, reappeared. "We put him in your father's room," he told Erwin.

"How did he lose his arm? Was it a sword? Or cannonfire? Or that new terror, the dynamite?" she asked.

Erwin was surprised she knew about the dynamite.

"I need to know if it was a clean cut, or mangled. I need to know what sort of nightmares he might have from it. In spite of my title and honorific, I'm a soldier's wife, not some pampered and spoiled wilting violet of a lady," she claimed proudly.

The irony was painful. She'd chosen Nile, so she wouldn't become a Corps widow, or be married to a man maimed by a Titan, and now she was the wife of a man maimed by a Titan. Erwin didn't know how to tell her.

"It was a Titan shifter. It tried to kill Erwin, and your husband saved him, but it caught him because of it. Kenny freed him, but then it attacked them both. I attacked it, but I fucked up. I didn't think it would try to bite me. The other… there's a code of honor, amongst the other Titan shifters: they kill any of them who eat a human. But this one didn't follow that code. It would have killed me, but your husband pushed me to safety, only that thing was the fastest fucker I've ever seen, and Dok wasn't quite fast enough. He got bitten saving me. He lost his arm, so I wouldn't lose my life. No, he lost it so Erwin wouldn't lose me," Levi admitted.

"Was it the Armored or Colossal Titan? Or did Yeager Titan go rogue, as my husband feared he would?" she challenged, as they began to climb the sweeping staircase leading to the upstairs rooms, going at a slow pace, for Marie's sake.

"No. It wasn't any of them. It was a new one, a true monster. The others, we discovered there was a reason for what they did, for taking down the Walls. We declared war on them, before they declared it on us, the rest of us just didn't know about it. We have a truce with the others, now. They're no longer a threat, except for the Female Titan, if she's still alive, because she's just as batshit crazy as her father. The one who attacked us was her father, General Leonhart," Levi explained, telling her more than he would have.

"And is he dead? General Leonhart? The one who maimed my husband? The one who killed Nile's men, I presume?" she demanded.

"Yeah. He's the one who killed everyone. But we got the fucker. He's dead," Levi assured her.

"Good. So there will no doubt be horrific nightmares, but upon waking, Nile will know for a certainty that his monster is only a night terror, that he no longer has the power to harm him," Marie stated.

Erwin was impressed anew with Marie. She was born to be an officer's wife. She was as fierce a warrior as any of them. He looked down at her stomach. That child could have been his. Gawain, Kay, Galahad, Tristan, Isolde: they all could have been his. He expected to feel the familiar longing, the jealousy, the resentment, but this time, they were noticeably absent. Marie was Niles' wife, not his. He had Levi. Levi was just as tough, as brave, as loyal, as beautiful, as remarkable as Marie.

He half expected to see Gawain at the top of the stairs, but he was apparently obediently in the Nursery, with his siblings, or still fetching their dessert. He hadn't passed them on the way upstairs, but he might have taken the servants' stairs, which led directly from the kitchens upstairs.

It was surreal, walking down this hallway again, after years away. Nothing had changed, the ornate pictures were still in their gilded frames, the brass sconces still shone brightly, but his father was dead, and his house overrun by an army.

He led Marie, Levi and Mike to his father's room, and opened the door. Nile was there, in his father's plush poster bed, propped up in a seated position, two medics beside him.

"Marie," he said, a wealth of love and apology in her name, his sole remaining hand held out to her.

"Nile," she replied, heading for the bed.

Erwin waved the two medics to the door, and ushered them out of the room, closing the door, leaving the couple alone. "Stay here until they let you back in," Erwin ordered the medics, and they nodded.

"Mike, come with us. We need you to catch us up to speed on everything that happened while we were gone, and on everything here, and we'll in turn let you know what we found, when we successfully completed our mission," Erwin stated.

Mike's eyes widened at the implication that they'd actually made it to Shiganshina, to Yeager's basement. "Right," he agreed simply. "I'll take you to the War Room and brief you from there."

"The War Room? My father's Study?" Erwin hazarded, and Mike nodded.

"Excellent," Erwin said, eager to hear everything they'd missed.


End file.
